That picture is good enough for a definitive identification. Your snake is a juvenile black rat snake or juvenile gray rat snake. Oak snake is the common local name for gray rat snakes. Juvenile black rat snakes and gray rat snakes both look like gray rat snakes and the gray rat snake maintains its pattern throughout its life while black rat snakes lose their distinctive patterning and become all black with a white underside as they age and get larger. Given your location in northeast Georgia it is more likely to be a juvenile black rat snake or an intergrade between the black and gray rat snake. In any rate it is most definitely a rat snake. They are harmless.

Yes he is that. The guy who caught it for me said 'rattlesnake' and the animal control who came to take it away to release it said 'copperhead'. The problem is I can not find a pic of a copperhead that looks like it. It did look like it had a little rattle on the tail but never made noise-didn't even coil up. It stood its ground like a copperhead though. (Not that I have had any experience with either). The only pic I found that had that 'chestnut color' stripe going down his back was a timber rattlesnake. I live in Harlem Ga and didn't think we had them here? He/she was about 18-20 inches (I didn't get close enough to measure).

"I've had no experience with queen snakes." I understand, and I think that this is also true of the others who are calling it a Queen Snake. For Mike and I, who have each seen many, many Queen Snakes and many, many Gartersnakes, it is painfully obvious that this is a Gartersnake. "that lighting and color in photography can be misleading" I see your point very well. But...the camera is not playing tricks here. It shows a dorsal stripe and red banding because they do indeed exist. "...and never seen such a patternless species whether in shed or not" But which is more likely, a Gartersnake with some pattern lacking? or a Queen Snake with a Garter-esque head, dorsal stripe, red-banding, and found far from water? "That being said, I can't be sure of the species." That's really great to hear someone say. I'm glad that someone can admit that they're not "100% sure" it's a Queen Snake, because it is not. This is a Gartersnake. -Todd ...oh, and to keep it interesting, here's a real Queen Snake found a few days ago in western Indiana.

THANKS, it is so nice to have people at this site who can id snakes. I didn't think it was a cotton mouth but then they can be such different colors at different ages and stages of their life. I do see them swimming out in the big pond. I have read they are the olny ones who swim on top of the water, and that water snakes do not. The only thing I know for sure about them is the black line that appears to go through their eye. Is there a site out there that clearly shows all the different 'appearances' of these snakes? I really need to learn since I have created a wildlife friendly yard. Thanks again