Thanks Matt. You'll be happy to know he is still alive and well. I dang near wrecked the truck and tractor avoiding him in the road.

What AU Coonhunter said.

Thanks bearcreekmatt. Nice to see these are still holding on down there. They are very impressive snakes that I don't want to see end up like the indigo.

The quote above is on a list of things I will likely never say about a snake.

Matt,

If a black pine snake would not be seen in the wild as far north as B'ham, what snake that inhabits this area would look the closest to a black pine snake?

Found a long black snake in my yard several years ago and after looking at snake ID photos decided it was a black pine snake...looked just like it even though the range was way off. Nothing else seemed to fit.

Any ideas?

Straycat, there is always the remote possibility for a snake to be outside its native range if it is an escaped captive or put there by someone not knowing any better. I've heard of people catching gopher tortoises and moving them several hundred miles. They probably won't survive long of course. A black pine could probably survive well in north or central AL.

There are also northern pine snakes that sometimes occur is a very dark or melanistic phase. It could have been a northern pine.

I've also seen some rather dark and large gray rat snakes in north AL.

Democrat.

I'm pretty sure that's the spitting cobra that escaped several years ago.And the experts said it would never survive !