Well - hello there, Mr. Copperhead....

Was cleaning out the squash patch today and pulling-up the vines for composting.  Look who I woke up from taking a nap...

Needless to say, it was a little upset with me. It was just minding its own business before I distubed it, afterall.

Judging fom the shape of the head and the way it coiled-up into a strike pose on me, I'm guessing this guy (gal?) is a baby copperhead.   My first instinct was to kill it, but being the "live and let live" guy that I am, I opted to let it be.  Watching it venture off into the forest made me feel a little better about that decision.  Though, I'll be thinking twice before i go wandering through those woods barefoot again!

Hope you remember me kindly, lil' buddy.  We're cool, right?

I can't see the pattern good enough to give you a better confirmation but I would feel that it is fine to treat it as a "Nope Rope" and provide it a wide birth. Are copperheads common to find where you live or is this a new thing?

There are some things that are, ... just better to not let be.

Yup. Copperhead. I have no scale, for age, however, it's not a 'baby', because there's no yellow tail. Another indication it's not super young is that it went away. The youngest ones- the yellowtails, are the most dangerous, because not only have they not matured into being able to control the venom released, but (like the young of most species) they tend to be more reactive than the mature ones, and are more likely to go on the aggressive, rather than leave.

We generally leave them alone, unless they're hanging out too close to us or the livestock. They're important to our ecosystem, and we live in the woods - so we've invaded their home. Unfortunately for us, many folks within about a5 mile radius of us have sold their land for development, and we're now being overrun with a lot of wildlife, that has nowhere else to go.

Timothy Norton wrote:I can't see the pattern good enough to give you a better confirmation but I would feel that it is fine to treat it as a "Nope Rope" and provide it a wide birth. Are copperheads common to find where you live or is this a new thing?

"Nope Rope"  LOL, haven't heard that one before.  Copperheads are known to be around in general, but I wouldn't say they're very common. We'll typically see ordinary garter snakes and black snakes for the most part.  We have timber rattlers, too ...but I've never seen any.  They tend tend to like rocky areas where the copperheads prefer to hang out in leaf litter, which exactly where this one was hiding out.

Carla Burke wrote:Yup. Copperhead. I have no scale, for age, however, it's not a 'baby', because there's no yellow tail. Another indication it's not super young is that it went away. The youngest ones- the yellowtails, are the most dangerous, because not only have they not matured into being able to control the venom released, but (like the young of most species) they tend to be more reactive than the mature ones, and are more likely to go on the aggressive, rather than leave.

We generally leave them alone, unless they're hanging out too close to us or the livestock. They're important to our ecosystem, and we live in the woods - so we've invaded their home. Unfortunately for us, many folks within about a5 mile radius of us have sold their land for development, and we're now being overrun with a lot of wildlife, that has nowhere else to go.

That's interesting about the yellow tails, Carla. I didn't know about that. This one was only about 12" long, I have no idea how fast they grow.  It was pretty groggy and it's head was tiny, so I didn't view it as an immediate threat, which gave me some time. While I went to get the camera, it had decided to go for the woods.  It has plenty of habitat out here and snakes have been rather scarce this year, so letting it go felt like the right thing to do.  

Good instinct leaving it alone. They're just looking for warmth and cover under the squash vines, not really interested in you unless you corner them. "Nope Rope" is a good one though, might have to borrow that.

Yup - we try hard to let them be. But, we feel the same about the black rat snakes, and they're allowed a little more leeway around the livestock (not much, because they do bite, they're just not venomous, but any bite can become infected - and they have a real thing for eggs & chicks), because they not only eat the rodents, they also eat the copperheads.

I stand corrected, on the reason babies are more dangerous - the venom control isn't it - it's just that they're so much harder to see. According to this, they can have their yellow tail for up to two years. The thing is, they're not big snakes, so going by size can be deceiving.

https://uswildlifedispatch.com/juvenile-vs-adult-copperhead-identification/