How adorable is that? When I was in America, a friend and I were walking through an orchard (ok we were sortof lost having wandered into the forest) and the apple trees were being irrigated with big rotary sprays – think lawn sprinklers, but huge. Anway as we’re walking down the dirt road I notice something almost underfoot. Looking down I thought “ooh lizard” until the lack of legs became apparent. That was right about when it started striking my boot. Now I know snakes can stretch and unhinge their jaws, but that was perhaps a tad over-ambitious.
UPDATE: according to Dr Pete Ducey of the State University of New York at Cortland, it’s a northern water snake, Nerodia sipedon.