Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
Im new here so forgive my, uh newness...anyway,
I enjoy taking photos of snakes that I see in the wild where I work and live. So if yall could help me identify some of them, I would appreciate it.
I think this is a Southern water snake, but I am not sure...the snakes belly had dark red bands, but I couldn't take the photo and hold the snake up at the same time, so I only have a picture of his face when he is in the water and his body when he is going into the culvert...

Im not sure how to upload pics, so I don't know if this will come out the firs time I do it...
Thanks for your patience.
Wow, I didn't realize the pic file was sooo big...I am sorry if this slowed down anyones computer...

Hi, I forgot to say, that I am in Southeastern Louisiana.
Thanks for your time

My guess would be Nerodia fasciata confluens, the Broad Banded Water Snake.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is Nerodia fasciata for sure, which makes it a Southern Watersnake.

I believe in SE LA you are still in the range of the Broad-banded subspecies (confluens), but it is a lot less "broad-banded looking" than the specimens I am used to from further west.
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Chris Harrison

Yeah, it is pretty typical of the N.f.confluens we used to catch all the time when I was a kid growing up around Slidell....back when they were Natrix.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hey thanks for your answers...

I live 20 min from Slidell, btw.

Do you ever do any herping in Honey Island Swamp?
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Actually, I have never been there...I am just now really getting into this.
Recently, I had an encounter with a 5 foot 2 in. Eastern Diamond-backed rattlesnake. He had 10 sections on his rattle. Unfortunately, the snake was killed. It was on a friend of mine's property in Poplarville, MS. I was very upset that he killed it. Wish we could have relocated him somehow... was a beautiful snake. I have pics, but they are after he was killed.

That is definitely a shame. That is about the westernmost limits of the range of the Eastern Diamondback and they are not very common there at all. You may occasionally find a Black Pine Snake in that area, too...also very rare in those parts and fully protected by Mississippi state law.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson