Eastern Milk Snake

we're soft in the UK, only a couple of snake species, and none really dangerous. How venomous is this one to humans?

This is a non-venomous snake but it can be somewhat aggressive if pestered. It's a species of king snake and they do a great job of keeping mice, chipmunks and other rodents away from barns. Milk snakes and king snakes are often kept as pets because they do better than most snakes in captivity. The only venomous snake that is found this far north in the US is the Eastern Massassauga rattlesnake but it isn't really considered one of the deadly species of rattlesnake like an Eastern Diamondback.

Most animals (and people) would tend to be a bit aggressive if pestered! Most animals will try to get out of the way if a human comes clomping near them - and even if they don't move they give warning that they're feeling crowded. Do rattlesnakes really rattle as they show in the films?

Snakes in general are a closed book to me, so I'm quite ignorant of what's what, but am fascinated all the same.

Yes they do rattle like that. The few times I have seen rattlesnakes, they usually ignore me and I ignore them so I don't hear them rattle often. When I would hear them rattling most was when I was bailing hay, there were some hay fields near swamps and wetlands that the rattlesnakes liked. They would get baled with the hay sometimes and you could hear them rattling when you'd pick up the hay bale.

ah, that explains a reference in a book I read years ago, about picking out snakes that had been lifted on pitchforks to the hay wagon. alwyas wondered what the snakes were doing there to be pitched in the first place!

most animals give warning if they're feeling threatened; elephants flap their ears, rattlesnakes sound an audible alarm.