Yes, the snake was trying to trick you. Many snake species do this including garters, milksnakes and kingsnakes. They will vibrate the tip of the tail in dead leaves or grass just as you describe. Racers can be vicious if cornered or grasped, but are otherwise harmless.

Thanks Mike!
Sherry

Mike was correct - when agitated many snakes quickly vibrate their tails, including racers. While they are rather aggressive when corner, they are nonvenomous and harmless.
~Mike

I have seen Black Rat Snakes do this also, plus King Snakes, Water Snakes, Garter Snakes, and I once had a captive Deer Mouse that did it too. People think the sound is supposed to sound like a Rattlesnake, but the Rattler is really trying to sound like something else.
Many land vertebrates hiss, a sound that is very disruptive to the nervous systems of most vertebrates. Just let someone sneak up behind you and go "psssst" real loud. You will jump, and that is the hope of all these creatures, that the predator will jump, get distracted, and allow just one split second for the beleaguered animal to get away, Rattler included. They, as most of us, would rather run than fight.

I have found that Racers, if approached slowly and gently, can be picked up in the field, but once frightened and aroused, will musk and bite and cannot be calmed down. They will usually race away at high speed. This leads me to think you may have seen a Black Rat Snake (depending on where you live, of course - over most of their range they aren't out yet).

I don't know what kind of snake it was, just that it was solid brownish black. I've seen it several times, and it always flees whenever I happen upon it. Actually, there may be two - last year I saw two close together, which made me wonder how snakes mate?
Anyway, I live on 5 1/2 mostly wooded acres out in the country in southeast Mississippi, halfway between Hattiesburg and Gulfport, just north of Wiggins. I've seen brown/gray colored snakes that the locals call 'chicken snakes' but I think they're really gray rat snakes - I don't know if we have black rat snakes or not.
Sherry

It's funny, but yesterday when I checked on a seedling tree in my woods, I came across two black snakes, just like last year! I had my camera with me, so I made their picture. I took the first picture of both of them from a good distance away with the zoom on, and it's blurry -
{{!gwi}}
The snake on the left went into the hole in the ground in the upper left part of the picture as I approached closer to get a better picture. I got a close enough picture of the snake on the right that you can see his/her body -
{{!gwi}}
I think I have a resident pair of black snakes - maybe somebody can confirm that they're black racers?
I also found a small speckled kingsnake on the edge of my front porch yesterday, and we just told him to "shoo" which he did - maybe all this rain is driving the snakes out of their hidey holes. :)
Sherry

Sherry -
Those are definitely racers (Coluber constrictor).
~Mike

Thanks, Mike - that's what I thought.
Sherry