Has anyone actually seen snakes courting in the open without being flipped first? I mean undoubtedly seen them hooked up wothout assumption.
Yes. Copulating, not "courting", out in the open tall grass, under sparse-canopied shrubs, among boulders, and in large rock crevices open to the sky. Once alongside a lake (that was a NAFHA trip) near some rip-rap. Rattlesnakes, gophers, racers & whipsnakes. Always a quiet affair when I have witnessed it. Same goes for in captivity - copulation is "mellow love", "courting" is peppier (mostly him, not her - he has to talk her into it, she just has to say yes - or no; I don't think there's non-consensual sex in wild snakes), male combat can be pretty strenuous.
Copulation is easy to tell with the right view - the female's body obviously has something fat jammed into it. The skin is stretched enough so the scales (body, at & just above cloaca, NOT her tail) are all spread out. It is
completely unambiguous, there's no need to assume anything. The tails are not usually all wrapped at that point, nor are the cloacae ventrally opposed. Multiple-turns tail-wrapping & twitchy chin nuzzling is "courtship" stuff. Full-body twisting, pushing, interludes of zooming around etc is male combat.
My observations anyway. A fairly small sample of wild animals, much bigger with captives (just vipers). Curious what others have seen, and how they interpret it. Once you've seen the real thing, there's no more confusion as to what that is. The other stuff I can understand some confusion. Watching captive snakes helps a lot - you get to see all the stages, and (presumably...) you know who's a he and who's a she.
cheers