Is there a herpetologist in the house?

My (mostly uninformed) guess would be a water snake.

Would it be a copperhead? (A 'non-herpetologist with Golden Guide' assessment.) The guide says not usually found near water though....

As a non-herpetologist, I'm going with southern copperhead Agkistrodon contortrix. Sure, it might be a nonvenemous snake that superficially resembles a copperhead, but better safe than sorry.

Looks like a corn snake to me...see:

http://www.pitt.edu/~mcs2/herp/snake.pics/corn.gif

I would also guess copperhead. Its head looks like that of a pit viper to me. There are several subspecies of copperheads in the US, and I think the patterns can vary accordingly. Venomous, but not especially aggressive.

I would say not a copperhead. On copperheads, the dark spots look to wrap up from the belly, not down from the back. They look more like boas with shiny heads.

I'm going with a banded water snake.

I also guess cornsnake.

I assume that by "water snake" Stephanie and John are referring to the Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon (with common names it's hard to tell).

But if you look at the shape of the head of Nerodia s. here, and compare it to the top photo, they're very different. Nerodia's head is barely distinguished from its body, and the markings extend right up to the skull, with no discernible "neck." Not the same snake.

Again, I hesitate to speak with any authority, but Coturnix's mystery snake looks like a pit viper to me. I suppose it might be a water moccasin or other closely related N.A. pit viper, but it's definitely not a colubrid.

Snake markings and coloration are highly variable, but the skull shape is more distinctive.

Where's Darren Naish when you need him?

That is definitely Nerodia sipedon. No question.

Well, the herp-in-chief is at work, and he will give his opinion as soon as he comes back home, but let me tell you that mole kingsnake, Lampropeltis calligaster, can so easily be mixed with copperhead, that it is not even funny. That was my first thought, but they are usually hard to find (the only one I've seen was dead on the road, in fact just ran over when I drove that road, and it truly looked like copperhead until we took it and closely examined).

I'm going with corn snake...

I concur with corn snake (Elaphe guttata guttata), a.k.a. rat snake.

I'm pretty confident that this is the nominate race of the Northern water snake Nerodia sipedon.

I'm also pretty sure its a northern water snake. I've handled them and I was always very careful with them. They're non-venomous but bite fiercely when threatened.

I'd have figured brown water snake too, but my knowledge of snakes is pretty weak.

BTW, isn't the brown water snake the one with a mild anticoagulant venom that causes their bites to bleed for a long time?

Herp-in-chief is back home and says Northern Water Snake.

Cheers

The Nerodia contigent is correct. Very common in any body of water in New Jersey, and very nasty when captured.

Taxonomy hard. Snake pretty. :-)