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This snake was munching on my friends frogs in there koi pond. I have been told it is a color phase of a garter snake or an eastern coachwhip. It was about 30 inches long and not very aggressive.
Caught in Chiopee, MA. Pictures at the link

Carpist

http://picasaweb.google.com/carpist/UnknownSnake

http://picasaweb.google.com/carpist/UnknownSnake

It's definitely a Garter Snake of some kind, but it seems like it could be an odd morph of some kind(probably hypomelanistic). I'm pretty certain that the only Garter Snake subspecies in the Mass. area is the common Garter(Thamnophis s. sertalis), and that snake certainly looks NOTHING like a normal one of that subspecies.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

does look hypo, except for the head.

post the pics in the garter & ribbon snake forum
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1.0.0 Great Plains Ratsnake
1.0.0 Corn, Lavender Aztec het for Amel
0.1.0 Black Ratsnake
0.0.1 Texas Rat (tame)
1.0.0 Broad Banded Water Snake, Hypo
1.0.0 Black Bassador Retriever
2.1.0 Godchildren, 1 Evil, 2 possible hets

Yeah,...the dark head is pretty odd to me too, but maybe the hypomelanism just targeted the pigment cells in the body portion for whatever reason,...one thing's for sure.....some genetics simply has no rhyme or reason, it just happens..LOL!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Looks alot like the red phase of Storeria occipitomaculata, but it would be an awfully big one if thats what it was. Still looking for a more plausible answer but that's the best I've got now.

the background color is about the only thing similar between this and a red-bellied snake (notice the yellow belly and HUGE body size...)
I agree with everybody else on this one -- the head is 100% garter even if the body is colored strangely

Definately not a coachwhip, as they are not found in MA (not north of central North Carolina according to range maps I've seen). The head looks 100% eastern garter, but not a common color pattern.

The following link is pretty good for identifying snakes in MA, although you will not find a garter with that color morph.

http://www.umass.edu/nrec/snake_pit/index.html
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Joe

I suppose snakes don't cross breed? The consensus is color morph of a garter snake so far. I know little about snakes. That is why I asked the experts. Thanks for the feedback. If the frogs in the pond last perhaps the snake will be around for more photos.

Carpist

The only other species in your area that could even potentially cross with an eastern garter is a ribbonsnake and I do not believe hybrids between those two species has ever been documented (if I'm wrong then someone will correct me within half an hour...)

It isn't a hybrid. It is simply an uncommon color morph of Eastern Gartersnake. That isn't that unusual. Eastern Gartersnakes come in a wide array of colors and patterns.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

you can even see the light dorsal stripe in back of the head in one photo. Except for the head, it seems to be a patternless hypo variant.

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"