Is this is rat/chicken snake?

[Clod Stomper]

At Ft. Stewart, which had habitat for the Red Pileated Woodpecker (which was I think a threatened species at the time), they would put anti-snake devices to keep the rat and corn snakes from getting into their nests.

In south Georgia, we had yellow rat snakes, black rat snakes, and gray rat snakes with overlapping ranges, so we ended up with a lot of intergrades that didn't really fit the traditional pictures found in snake identification guides. They can also get very long and fat (longer than 6 ft), but they get very docile in captivity. I once fed a captive rat snake a mouse leg (rather than a whole mice); to my surprise, it scarfed it down like Homer Simpson eating a drumstick.

You may be thinking of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker (or the Red Chuckleheaded Woodpecker, as a friend calls it), which is still considered endangered as far as I know.

[mikegideon]

You may be thinking of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker (or the Red Chuckleheaded Woodpecker, as a friend calls it), which is still considered endangered as far as I know.

 

In South Georgia, it could have been a red headed pecker wood. I know a couple of them.

[dawgdoc]

You may be thinking of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker (or the Red Chuckleheaded Woodpecker, as a friend calls it), which is still considered endangered as far as I know.

 

Cockaded seems familiar, but it has been over 15 years ago.   It was some type of woodpecker, and I think the nests were easy for snakes to raid, maybe.

[Omega]

You may be thinking of the Red Cockaded Woodpecker (or the Red Chuckleheaded Woodpecker, as a friend calls it), which is still considered endangered as far as I know.

Yes, I think the red cockaded woodpecker are still on the list.  When at Ft Bragg mid to late 80s they had a map called the woodpecker special.  It was so accurate that I used it for my hunting map, if the map said a woodpecker lived there you could bet the tree had either a single or double band (one was perimeter the other the actual tree marker) on it marking its location and 99% chance there was a woodpecker nest there.  The maps were so coveted that they could not keep them in stock, most accurate map I ever used until the gps.  That was on the plus side, on the other side of the coin was training.  When the conservationists came to post, may ranges were closed and a new multi million dollar one did not open as planned.  Training was so curtailed that you could not be near a nest tree.  I guess they figured out now what we knew then, the military activity did not bother the birds:

 

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/fort-bragg-and-red-cockaded-woodpecker-co-exist-comfortably-after/article_0c570329-0049-5543-a074-f8ec55604454.html

[DaveS]

Rat Snake. I have two for pets. Really cool snakes!

 

Dave

[wjh2657]

Unless there have been some recent changes to the law, it is against the law to kill snakes (or any other non-game animal) in Tennessee.

[JWC]

There's marked woodpecker trees all over Appalachicola National Forest... snakes too.

But you may have deciphered the blazing on the trees for me a little. I never really considered it.

[Radlink54]

The old farmers around me always told me to keep guys like him around.  They said he will keep the copperheads from moving in!

[gun sane]

Looks to me like one of those copper mouthed rattler moccasins.