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[yardbird tx]

Rat snake.

 

[gila_dog]

Sounds like a lot of people who know their snakes are calling it a rat snake. And if he eats vermin and isn't poisonous, then he should be welcome at your house. We have a lot of bull snakes here. They are colored a lot like rattlesnakes, and will act like rattlers. They coil up, shake their tail, and make a rattling noise from inside their throat. They can even be aggressive if you mess with them. But they eat up all kinds of nasty vermin, and there is a general belief that they keep rattlesnakes away, either by fighting them or out hunting them. If I find one along the road sometimes I catch him and bring him home.

Here's a bull snake:

Here's a rattlesnake:

The bull snake's eyes are round, and his head is not arrow shaped. The rattlesnake has hooded eyes, and his head is very different. Look at his fat cheeks (full of poison!).

 

[Velociraptor]

.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Rattlesnakes are not breeding with blacksnakes. (Well, not successfully anyhow

)

People may be seeing dark-pigmented (melanistic) rattlesnakes; or, more likely, dark colored snakes that show traces of rattlesnake-like patterning (rat snakes and king snakes sometimes have that appearance) and are vibrating their tailtip the way the original poster noted. (MANY snakes can do that, btw)

Repeat, in North America there is NO concern about ANY slender-bodied shiny-looking snake being venomous , no matter what its coloring or behavior. Honest. (Well, ok, except for coralsnakes, but they are quite rarely seen, and are very brightly colored, and pretty much nobody ever even finds em let alone gets bit by them).

Pat

 

[halo]

Coral snakes are extremely common down here in Florida, and are seen all the time. Fortunately they are not aggressive in the least, and bites from them are very rare.