True, it may be a rat snake, but... do rat snakes rattle the end of their tails like a rattler would? That's what really threw me (after I thought about it). I mean... do ALL snakes do that when aggrivated? O.o?

No worries. It is either a Black Rat Snake or a Northern Black Racer. Both species are nonvenomous and harmless.

Hi Nancy ... we do enjoy all of our woodpeckers. They all come to the feeders. I create a bird buffet on our front porch each winter to have a large covered area of comfort for them. Heated birdbath and such. We get to see the pileated babies also and their hairdos are something to behold. Could we call it spiked? We had a nest of them in our next door neighbors yard a few years back. That was really cool to get to see them feeding, etc. You can see the those photos begin here. You can close the window and look to the left. I was blessed to get a short video of Pale-billed Woodpeckers in Costa Rica with a baby popping in and out of the hole shouting for food. It was pretty high up in the canopy so it's a bit shaky but the parent returns with something and he really pops out of that hole. The parent seemed to be bothered by me, so I stopped filming to leave.

It's a baby Black Rat Snake(Pantherophis obsoletta). Babies of this species hatch out boldly patterned with black blotches on a silvery background, and turn darker with each shed of skin, so they look quite different from the adults.