Northern Water Snake

Today our friends Jane and Marty took us to Inisfree Garden, a marvelous park-like area in Millbrook, well south of their house in the Hudson River Valley. It claims to be recognized as one of the best such gardens anywhere, combining "Modernist ideas and traditional Chinese and Japanese garden design principles." We took a two hour walk around a picturesque lake, and picnicked with a panoramic view.

Along the way we saw this snake (over a meter in length), sunning itself placidly. (An easier subject than my usual birds :) An approximate ID is black snake. However my friendly naturalist email commentator suggests Northern Water Snake, and that seems very likely (cf. the right-hand image on this Wiki page), and here's another one.