Huge copperhead in GA

[om21braz]

Speaking of Snakes in GA -

My wife and I where out on the Savannah River yesterday and she came upon something I have never seen before a swimming rattle snake. Hard to tell by the attached pictures but it was a good sized, about 4-feet long, what I think was an eastern diamond back although it may have been a light colored timber rattler. Snake was perfectly comfortable in the water stopping several times to check us out when we got to close. This spot is about 40-miles downriver from Augusta and nothing but woods and farmland on either side and about 100-yards across.

Wish we had gotten better pictures but the current and wind were pushing the jetski around.

I will let others do the identification, but I have seen rattlers swimming as that on the lake nearby. Very good swimmers.

 

[Rustyiron]

I will let others do the identification, but I have seen rattlers swimming as that on the lake nearby. Very good swimmers.

If I saw one while swimming, I'd be an "olympic" new world record holder for the crawl. :laughing:

 

[robbyr]

So this is a timber rattlesnake?

Yessir. Also called Canebreak. This is the group I知 a member of. They are very good at identifying snakes. I used to be 75% only good snake is a dead snake but I致e learned from this group. You can post a pic and they ID almost immediately. Up until a few years ago any dark colored snake anywhere close to water was a cottonmouth. Turns out majority were non venomous water snakes. If ya take the time you can see the difference. Water snakes are a lot more aggressive than cottonmouths. Last fall I was sitting on my front porch drinking coffee when I saw a small snake on a gardenia limb about 3 feet away. Could致e touched him. I posted a pic and within a minute a guy responded saying 鼎an you catch him? Immediately? I did and a fella drove from 3 hours away to get him. Turns out it was a juvenile Western Ratsnake with no scales.

 

[robbyr]

View attachment 564464

Oops forgot to post this.

 

[TnAndy]

Hmmm never got my nose close enough to smell one! Most people are bitten when they step on them in the woods, practically invisible in the leaves.

Yep...or on a pile of firewood:

Look at log left of the green spot.

 

[dmccarty]

I will let others do the identification, but I have seen rattlers swimming as that on the lake nearby. Very good swimmers.

If I saw one while swimming, I'd be an "olympic" new world record holder for the crawl. :laughing:

Here ya go. Just saw this video this week. The lake is in the NC mountains and the snake swims to and then boards the boat

Rattlesnake slithers across NC lake, boards boat :: WRAL.com

Might want to turn down the sound on your system because the kids screaming is quite loud.

It is funny that the URL is in ../lifestyles/pets. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[atsah]

Anything can get big.. It looks to be maybe 5ft at best, Very possible.. I saw a northern water snake on the local river swimming very close to me that had to be six ft, I thought someone let a pet python into the river when I first saw it, LOL.. Pretty aggressive sucker to, it was trying to bite my paddle and I wasn't messing with it, it came towards my canoe, I smacked it and it swam away..