Round eyes, harmless, vertical eyes poisonous. Many harmless species, like rat snakes, will flatten their heads and wiggle their tails in dry leaves, trying to imitate a rattler.
My wife is terrified of snakes even though Maine has no poisonous ones.Every so often I have to relocate one or two far away because if its not so far they always come back.I dont like bats but do the same for them and move them away from my wood pile or where ever they are in my way so that they can eat up skeeters and other pests.Did you find out what he actually was?
I dont know for sure what kind of snake this was but Im leaning towards a baby black rat snake. Hard to tell from the pics but I dont remember him having the slant eyes. When I first showed family and friends they all said copperhead but who knows? Im just glad this ones mom wasnt around as well. Im not very scared of snakes and had a python for a pet when I was younger but definitly wasnt trying to pick this one up. Now if he was in an old blob bottle or something he would have had to move one way or the other.
I'm glad I don't have to worry much about poison snakes in VT, worrying about the ticks is bad enough. I find a few small snakes burrowing in my dig spots, in fact, the last time I dug at my early 1900's dump, I dug up a little garter snake under a metal tub, it was starting to get cold, and I felt bad for disturbing it's hiding space, so I moved away from that hole to leave it in peace even though bottles where popping out left and right.
Yeh, the rattlers are but extinct in NE. I was fortunate to run across a few back in the 70's and early 80's but that was a long time ago. Most states have a BOLO to report them if seen. They want to know when and where. They were amazing critters to walk by and get a rattle from.
I know you other state folk are saying "big deal" but it's different up this way.
If you have ever been bitten by a poisenous snake your attitude may change a little about them. I know mine did. I harbor no ill will towards snakes in general and I do practice relocating every rattler I come in contact with. (usually 5 to 10 a year) I relocate his head in one direction and his body in another. I guess I hold grudges.