As promised, here is my favorite "go to" site for snake identification, here in North Carolina:  http://herpsofnc.org/snakes/  

Please remember, there are 37 different species of snakes in North Carolina. Out of these, only 6 are venomous. A snakes color may vary in time, being it’s brightest and most defined just after shedding its skin and growing darker and more dull as it ages. Colors and patterns may vary slightly from snake to snake even of the same species. So, it is best to have several different references of any one snake before making a positive ID. So, if your snake does not match what you see pictured on one site, then compare it to what you find on another site as well. Snake identification often boils down to which pictures and description it most closely resembles.

Now that we have learned the differences between the good, the bad and the ugly in snakes, please be sure to identify the snake in your back yard BEFORE lopping its head off with a shovel. The simple fact is that we get great benefits from snakes. With their appetite for mice and rats and even sometimes the venomous snakes, we fare much better with them around.