Near Pringle Road, near Patsy Pond in the Croatan NF of North Carolina, my son Andrew hollered out that he found a cottonmouth. I was excited, I'd never seen a cottonmouth before. It was on an overgrown vehicle track near ruts filled with water. The cottonmouth did not move much, but kept its mouth wide open, giving abundant display why it is known as a cottonmouth. It was very dark, with blackish stripes and dirty golden background. It was also very heavy bodied and took inadequate shelter under some insubstantial branches.
It has many other names, the most familiar to me being the water moccasin. In 2014 the taxonomy was changed and there are now two separate species, the northern cottonmouth, which we saw, and the Florida cottonmouth.
I never really saw it with its mouth closed and I hope to see more in the future with Sam living in North Carolina.
I had not realized a cottonmouth and water moccasin were the same.
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