Quote Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal View Post
... I would have never been able to tell a common water snake vs cottonmouth without someone to point out the differences. I've never mixed up with copperheads since my area has such bright ones. (It would be similar to mixing up the red/orange of a corn snake with a wild type coloring Texas rat snake) ...
And it's always harder in the field too...critters aren't usually posing while we check our field guide and when colors/markings are variable, it's confusing. We have all
these in my area too, but I'm not into field herping. Around here so many ppl panic & kill these hapless water snakes out of confusion. It takes practice, then the
differences stand out more easily. I think copperheads are so pretty...I was offered one many years ago in another state, but I didn't want to deal with making it legal
& had plenty on my plate already. And I wouldn't catch one now, just to have it...I've never been into taking from the wild anything that is doing fine & enjoying a "life".