I know my snakes pretty good - used to be determined to be a herpatologist and kept many snakes. The ones I was close enough to see were indeed juvenile cottonmouths (not banded/eastern water snakes - I know those too) - most I saw I was not close enough to get a good ID - but the ones that were close enough were definitely cottomouths. They resemble a the banded water snake - brownish/red but with a yellow tip tail. I have not seen a copperhead since moving here - and I used to see plenty on my many eastern Ky hikes - actually had a friends dog get bit on the face by one, and it was a bad deal - it lived though.
That will be $100 Rudy!!! LOL!
On a different note, after I posted this - I saw the one of the biggest adult cotton mouths I have ever seen dead in the road (between two small lakes that border each side of the road). It had just been hit, and I got out and took a good look at it. One of the fatter snakes I have seen outside of captivity in KY.
I have never seen a rattle snake in the wild - living - I saw one after it had been killed. I am a little skiddish of snakes in the wild, until I get a good ID on it. I have never killed one though - and wouldn't want to.
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