Carolina Gardening: Snakey visitor, 0 by DebinSC

DebinSC wrote:
I heard alot of birds making scolding noise and went out to see what the fuss was. There's a large Gardenia bush up against our back screen porch and it was full of Chickadees, Titmice, and a few Cardinals - must've been at least a dozen birds -all making a racket. Took me a while but I spotted the reason for the kerfuffle, about 2 feet off the ground.

Eeeeek! I do NOT like climbing snakes! Nearly impossible to get a shot through the screen - as you can see - but this was good enough for an ID , I think. A juvenile Rat Snake, I believe. It was only about 16" or so long. :}

Can anyone confirm that ID? And why isn't this little fella already safely tucked in underground after the frosty temps we had this week?
Deb