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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

Triangle head means pit viper.  There are three types of pit vipers:

Copperheads
Moccasins
Rattlesnatkes

You can eliminate that it might be a rattlesnake, can you not?  They don't 
like ponds any way.

Moccasins are not supposed to occur in your area.  People see non-descript 
grey snakes and like to recreationally panic over them claiming the place is 
postively a-slither with moccasins.  The occur in Virgina, but only around 
hte 
coast and only in the southern part of the coast at that.

How-some-ever one often sees copperheads around ponds especially in hot dry 
weather.  They are as common as earthworms.  If they are in a pond with silt 
all around, it will often cover them and it will look as if they have no 
markings, which are subtle at best.

The good news, if such it be, is that copperheads are the least poisonous of 
the pit vipers.  Small comfort, but they are unlikely to kill anyone.  They 
are not aggressive.  You have to step on one or (foolishly) try to pick it up 
to 
be bitten.  But you can step on one, as I have done many, without being aware 
of it.

When going to the pond, make a lot of noise and stomp around a lot (snakes 
can't actually 'hear' in the sense that we do).  Most snakes, even pit 
vipers, 
would rather get out of Dodge than to deal with you.   </HTML>