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I'm 95% sure I saw an Eastern cottonmouth today near Baltimore. I was mountain biking through a state park and came across it at a stream crossing. I didn't realize that their range stretched this far up the east coast.

Here's my question: Do Eastern cottonmouth's sometimes have markings almost like garter snakes? At first I thought it was a garter snake because it had the blotched, almost checkerboard-type markings on the side and a yellow stripe down it's spine. Something didn't seem right about it, though, because it's head was flat and triangular, not like a colubrid. It also had a much thicker body that was more oval than round. I thought it might have been a water snake of some sort, but when I stopped and started to play with it, it really stood its ground and started to strike at me. It had that mouth characteristic of a viper, but it moved too fast to actually see the fangs.

To tell you the truth, I'm really embarrassed that I didn't immediately know what it was. I'm just starting to get back into snakes, and I guess I've forgotten a lot since I was a kid. At about age 8 I could probably identify just about every snake or fish around.

I also dodged a bullet, because I was pretty close to picking the thing up. It's a good thing those snakes are bold, because if he didn't stand his ground, I would have probably tried to grab him not knowing what he was. I'm only used to seeing copperheads around here, and I knew he wasn't one of those.

This was definately the type of snake that I saw, but the markings were different:

If provoked garters will flatten out and showthe inside of their mouth just like that. Water snakes will do the same thing. I've never seen a cotton with a yellow stripe.

Link to garter showing defensive posture........ http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/VHS/Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis).jpg

If that was "definitely the type of snake I saw, but the markings were different", then that was not the type of snake you saw. As Slipkorn said, there are several snakes that will assume a posture much like that of a cottonmouth on the defensive. Did the snake rattle its tail? There are some colubrids that will, but neither the watersnakes nor the garters will do so. A ticked off cottonmouth will shake its tail.

~~Greg~~

I would put almost all my money on Nerodia sipedon. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

np
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

It is very doubtful that what you saw was a Cottonmouth. For one thing, Baltimore is considerably outside the range of Cottonmouths. About as far up the coast as they have been found is Southeastern Virginia. Another thing is that the yellow dorsal stripe your describe is not characteristic of a Cottonmouth, or any other North American crotalid snake for that matter.

In your area, the blotched pattern with the yellow dorsal stripe would be indicative of an Eastern Garter Snake. As stated by other folks in this thread, they can put on a pretty impressive defensive show, also.

The thing is, that the body type and head shape was much different than a garter snake. It was a lot thicker.

That link to the pic of the garter snake didn't work.

Do a search for Nerodia sipedon, or the northern water snake. I would bet that is what you saw. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

The Northern Water Snake has the same problem as the cottonmouth, it doesn't have a yellow stripe down it's back. I see those things all the time, they look similar to copperheads.

I really wish I took a picture of the snake that I saw, it was fresh in my head yesterday, but now my memory is a bit fuzzy. It was very strange, though, it doesn't look like anything I've searched for.

Hm...so it looked like a cottonmouth but it had a yellow stripe down its back? That throws me. My guess would be a Thamnophis but I thought you said it was stockier. My best advice is to get a field guide. Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Burgundy baby, With your blue eyed soul, You play the hits and I'm on that roll, Capricorn sister, Freddie Mercury, Jupiter Child cry

I know you have a lot more experience with sipedeon than I, but I've never seen one with even a hint of a dorsal stripe. It had to have been a sirtalis, right?
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International Snakes Meetup
International Herpetology Meetup

yep its a cottonmouth i have caught a lot of them at my friends beach house in maryland most of them look like that.