Looks more like an Eastern Gartersnake than any other snake I can find indigenous to Missouri. Note that ALL poisonous snakes in Missouri have vertical-slit pupils, so this is not one of them...
Neil, I'm no expert (and scared to death of snakes), but I think this may be what we called a "hog-nosed" snake when I was a kid growing up in Missouri. They sometimes mimic a cobra by spreading the skin behind their head, and they have a kind of up-turned nose. They may also be a type of garter snake, but the behaviors are sort of interesting. I agree with Bear that it does not look like a copperhead. (It would still scare me to see it "in person").
He was not at all aggressive. Just sunning himself on the path (and basically hogging the path!) We stopped to take the photos and he eventually decided we were not a threat and not all that interesting, and scurried off.
Yeah thats a hognose it's one of the few if only snake on this side of the world that will flatten it's head like a cobra if ya piss it off.
Great find Neil.
