Nice Pictures! I can answer your question. That black snake is a black rat snake. Was that midland water snake (subspecies of the northern water snake) found at LaRue Road. I have never found a midland water there before. In fact I don't think I know anyone who has seen one there either. I'm sure they have a good population there, but it surprises me that you saw one. They generally inhabit lakes, creeks and rivers. One doesn't usually see a midland or northern water snake in cypress swamp. I have seen them up north in oxbow lakes. I did see a midland water snake at Mingo swamp in a ditch, but that is far as my northern water snake experience goes. Nice find. Ryan

Harmless Diamondbacked Watersnake (Nerodia rhombifer). Looks like it just had a big meal. Cottonmouths are not common in Central Texas, depending what you call "central" Texas. They are there, but the harmless watersnakes significantly outnumber them. I have spent a lot of time working with snakes in the Central TX area (particularly Gillespie, Llano, Bexar, Kendall, Comal, Bandera, Kerr, and Real counties) and have seen very few Cottonmouths and they seem to be restricted to a few places. Most local people felt that they were much more common than they actually were. When I lived in San Angelo (which is actually more centrally located than Austin or San Antonio, but considered "west" Texas by most), Cottonmouths were restricted to a few streams and largely absent from most bigger bodies of water.

Interesting one. Juvenile snakes can be a lot of fun to identify because there can be very similar patterns among juveniles before the patterns diverge between species among adults. The Black Rat Snake and the Western Fox Snake are a great example of this and both are found in East Central Indiana. While telling adults of the two species apart is no problem, the juveniles look very similar. I think it's a juvenile black rat snake. The belly pattern is certainly a classic fox snake belly pattern but the belly pattern is also consistent with a juvenile black rat snake pattern (juvenile black rats tend to have more of a belly pattern than the adults and there is variability in belly patterns of young black rat snakes). The particular shape of the arrow on the head is more classic juvenile black rat snake. The nuances are subtle, but I think on balance the evidence weighs more toward juvenile black rat snake than juvenile western fox snake. I suppose the professionals would count belly scales to make a final determination if they had the snake in hand, but I think there is enough in the picture to take a very good guess. My guess is juvenile black rat snake. Thanks for a fun one to try to identify!

Eastern Milksnake. (Harmless)