This little guy was on the front porch to greet us when we came home from a night on the town. We had been to see Toy Story 3 and then to dinner. Wasn't expecting it to be dark when we arrived home, so didn't leave the porch light on. Fortunately, the driveway light uses a light sensor to automatically turn on and gave enough light to see something was on the porch when I approached the front door.

He is an Eastern Black Rat Snake. They are not poisonous, but not what you want to walk up on in the dark. They eat other snakes and rodents. Looks like this one had some meals in the last several days based on the lumps in his body. I guess the porch was a nice warm dry spot to camp out for a while. The markings on his back are many time mistaken for Copperheads, but his head definitely is not a Copperhead shape. Our first snake! I got a shovel and coaxed him on his way. Hard to tell with only a little of the rocking chair in view, but I estimate him to be 3-4 feet in length and about the diameter of a shovel handle. He can grow to 8 feet in length.