Cottonmouth Coloration

As I've said before I'm a roadkill junkie. Anytime I see any sort of animal (except for the usual dog or house cat) on side of the road I gotta stop to check it out. It's an unstoppable urge. Gross I know, but if you can get past the smell you can see some interesting things as I did while birding in Sabine Pass, TX today. While driving slowly along Highway 87 I found a total of 5 DOR (Dead On Road) snakes- a garter snake, a speckled king, and 3 cottonmouths.
Of the 3 cottonmouths I found the larger one was the most interesting. What caught my eye was its dorsal color being a coppery brown, making it the first one I've come across presenting this coloration. When cottonmouths are born they very much resemble and are sometimes mistaken for juvenile copperheads. As they continue to age they develop the distinctive cottonmouth bands which are sharp in definition as seen in the close up photo below of one of the small ones I found.
Once they reach adulthood the banding becomes fainter as dorsal coloration becomes a grey, black or sometimes a brown color as with the one I found. Just goes to show you what you can learn and discover along the edge of a road. If you would like to see more photos of this snake go here.