Water Snake
I was on a hike this morning and stumbled upon this water snake who was sitting on the shore of a pond. It's back end was sticking out onto the path I was walking on and it didn't take off, so I took some snake portraits.
It's a Northern Water Snake and is fairly common in Massachusetts. They are not poisonous, but they will bite repeatedly if cornered or threatened. Knowing that, I didn't corner or threaten it. This is the biggest snake I can remember seeing in the wild and is much bigger than any garter snake you'd run across. I didn't break out the tape measure to get an accurate length, but it looked to be about 2 or 2 1/2 feet long.