ID this snake

[tjm]

Blow snake- that was my first impression, but a second and third look at the picture made me wonder if it was something else. Pic is a bit blurry on my machine. No hog nose snakes in the Ozarks when i was growing up.

[liphunter]

Resembles my ex-wifes lawyer. Could be him. Could you tell if the spine was missing? 

[BilletHead]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Could not tell from this photo. I have never seen one in the wild.

Definitely had got this had I seen these two photos or if it curled over and "died". Pretty cool snake for sure.

            I knew exactly after I backed up. At first glance not positive and that's why I went back.  Hope I get to see him again.

[fishinwrench]

That kinked up posture was my first clue.  The coloration and unclear borderlines on the banding sure make him a good imposter.   He's got the color down pat for sure!

[Al Agnew]

Somehow I didn't see this post until now.  Knew it wasn't a copperhead...copperheads may be close to that color but the markings are completely wrong.  But I was surprised from the first photo that it was a hognose because I haven't seen any that were that long and slender.  The ones I've seen have been considerably short and thick, and usually grayish with dark brown blotches.  Very cool snakes, though. 

With the staying at home thing, I've been writing and doing some scientific illustrations of various critters for my blog, and one of the projects is how to tell Missouri's few venomous snakes at a glance.  Copperheads are the easiest, because with very rare exceptions their dark markings always look like big bowties from above, and like Hershey's Kisses from the side...always thin across the top of the back and widening down the sides.  Rattlesnakes are mainly easy, too.  Cottonmouths are the most difficult, but not really if you know what to look for.  I frequent the Missouri Nature Lovers group on Facebook, and it's incredible the number of people that are absolutely sure that every snake pictured is either a copperhead or a cottonmouth.  Makes me wonder why they can't see the details that make these snakes so distinctive.  For some reason, this year there are apparently thousands of people encountering and photographing midland brown snakes (DeKay's brown snakes), little completely harmless critters, and putting the photos up in that group, and inevitably several people comment that they are baby copperheads.   

[Ham]

Super Fun!

[Johnsfolly]

14 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

Makes me wonder why they can't see the details that make these snakes so distinctive. 

Probably many of the same folks that can't tell a spotted bass from a largemouth bass .

[snagged in outlet 3]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Probably many of the same folks that can't tell a spotted bass from a largemouth bass .

That hurt...

[tjm]

I think brown snakes are on the increase, at least I've seen more over the last few years. On the other hand  I'm seeing fewer snakes of all other kinds. 30 years ago a trip to town would show 10-20 road kill snakes, many of them copperheads; over the last 3-5 years it's been rare to see any road killed snakes and most of them are rat snakes. I suspect armadillos out-compete snakes for foods or possibly prey on snake eggs or young, because the decrease in snakes that I observe is at the same time that armadillos have increased.