Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I live in Virginia and was vacationing at my dad's river house and ran across the beautiful snake. The water there is brackish and the snake was hanging out in the water close to the shore. It looked all black except for what seemed like very muted banding that was just barely visible. It was quite long I'd estimate about 5 feet in length. It's body was average... ie not heavy bodied. It's head looked fairly triangular in shape and was bigger than it's neck. I've been trying to figure out what it is by going around online, and it seems that it's some kind of watersnake or cottonmouth, but the non-heavy body is throwing me off. The river house is in southeast VA.

Thanks

If I had to take a guess, I'd say a Northern Watersnake. What part of Southeast Va were you at? Also what river? With the link below, you can see a shaded map of their range in va. Counties south of I-64 is where the beginning of the cottonmouth's range begins. I'm just North of their range, between Williamsburg & Richmond. I see plenty of Northern Watersnakes, and a few Brown Watersnakes, but have never seen a cottonmouth.
Steve

>>I live in Virginia and was vacationing at my dad's river house and ran across the beautiful snake. The water there is brackish and the snake was hanging out in the water close to the shore. It looked all black except for what seemed like very muted banding that was just barely visible. It was quite long I'd estimate about 5 feet in length. It's body was average... ie not heavy bodied. It's head looked fairly triangular in shape and was bigger than it's neck. I've been trying to figure out what it is by going around online, and it seems that it's some kind of watersnake or cottonmouth, but the non-heavy body is throwing me off. The river house is in southeast VA.
Link

Snakes look more slender when they are wet. It sounds exactly like an old adult Northern Watersnake to me.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

It might have been a black rat snake. They are all black and most have faint patterning as adults. They are also more likely to reach 5ft and aren't as thick as water snakes.

Thanks guys, I'm going to try and take a picture if I ever see it again... but I looked up black rat snakes and you guys may have hit the nail on the head, many of the pictures are very much like what I saw....

Also we're at the mouth of the east river which empties into the mobjack bay

Thanks again!