Yes, that is a snake. It's hard to tell without a more detailed picture, but it resembles a garter snake or a ribbon snake--both of which are harmless and eat small vertebrates (frogs, mice, etc....).

I'd have to see it closer, and it looks a little long, but it could be a brown or grey earth snake. We're in east Dallas, and I find them every time I lift a rock, edge by the sidewalks or thin the jasmine next to the foundation. They're harmless, eat lots of bugs and don't get more than maybe 18" long at the most. The adults will put out a goo that looks like bird poop and smells like a skunk if you hold them when they don't want to be held. The babies don't appear to be able to do that, because my kids are messing with them constantly.

They're also a huge favorite treat for chickens :)

I second what missinformation said - looks like an earth snake to me. I live in Arlington and there's a lot of them in our asian jasmine. They keep the bug population down, and my toddler likes them. :)

Just be sure any kid that handles them washes their hands afterwards; I've heard that snakes can carry salmonella. But otherwise they're totally harmless, and are in fact highly beneficial.

They eat SLUGS AND SNAILS!!! I love TX brown snakes. They do stay small at around 13" full grown(inches) PJ

Maybe a snake will visit my pond to eat a couple of the toads that have taken up residence there! Last night we had four of them - two of them croaking loudly and the other two mating. Last year we only had one toad. He must have told his friends about our pond! Well, now that I think about it maybe a snake that likes to get in the water might not be such a good thing since that would probably be a water moccasin/cotton mouth!

The earth snake is definitely one to keep around. They're good for the garden and keep the insects and other small unwanted critters under control.

I love to hear toads and frogs croaking at night.

I definitely don't like snakes, regardless of what they are, i.e. good vs. bad. I have seen more snakes this spring than I have seen in the past 12 years. I think it is because of the drought that is happening down here in south Texas. This morning I had a ribbon snake in my greenhouse and a unknown, but probably a rat snake, in the street that was dead. It was about 5' long, and it looked like it had been run over. At least I'm getting better about not killing the non-poisonous ones. You might want to read this article that was in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times yesterday. Scary since I have lots of coral snakes in my yard!

It's a Texas Brown Snake (as others have also noted). Some diagnostics that indicate it as a Texas Brown Snake even at a distance are the black blotch at the back of the head and the smaller black behind the eye separated by the lighter coloring that give the snake's neck almost a bit of a partially ringed appearance.

Texas Brown Snakes are small harmless snakes and max out somewhere around 18 inches in length. But an 18 incher would be a Brogdignanian monster...typical adults are about 9 to 12 inches long.

ltcollins--thanks so much for the link to the article. i'm totally creeped out now!! is there anything i can do to discourage coral snakes and rattlers from my yard?? i'm skeered!!!

Have coral snakes here. Saw one on my driveway a couple of days ago. Not apt to bite you if you don't pick them up.
The only thing I did was call the cats to give it time to get out of the way, without them bothering it.

I stepped on a 14 to 16 inch coral snake in the grass while bare-footed in the back yard about 7 or 8 years ago. It didn't do anything but just lay there. I called my vet and asked him if he had known or read anything about anyone or any animal that had been bitten by one. He said he had not.

I then read some stuff on the internet which said they were so non-agressive that children had been known to play with them, carrying them around in their pockets, etc. and had not been bitten. I'm sure not going out of my way to check this personally, but from what I read their mouth and fangs are small and not a good delivery system for the venom. I've seen only one since then and just left it alone.

Be happy gardening!

Here is a link that might be useful: Coral snakes