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Camouflage has its benefits. But sometimes, camouflage stands out. That was the case two days before New Year’s when a boat with fake grass, half a dozen duck hunters and one black dog gently motored across the harbor toward the Town Dock.

We caught up with the boat a few minutes later at the Town Dock where we found hunting guide Bernie Corwin, who’s based in Otway — “You could just say Harker’s Island” — in Carteret County . It’s been home to him since he was an infant. ”I wasn’t born there,” Bernie said, “but it’s the only place I remember living.”

He and his daughter had taken four hunters from Charlotte out hunting near Adams Creek on the other side of the Neuse. Around noon, the crew was getting hungry “I told them, ‘We can either go home (to Harker’s Island) and then come back. Or go over to Oriental.” The crew opted to cross the river and have lunch here.

Bernie had never before come to Oriental by boat, much less with 4 armed customers. And with an eye for not alarming the locals, he says he advised his crew that “’y’all don’t have to have your guns out’” on the approach to the Town Dock.

And that’s what the rest of his hunting party was doing while Bernie stayed back at the town dock. They’d gone hunting for lunch — without their guns — in Oriental. The guns on the boat was the reason Bernie remained with the boat. (Usually visiting boats to the Town Dock don’t need to leave someone on watch)

While he waited Bernie demonstrated how the duck blind works — “it’ll just take a second”. With a quick movement, the sides of the boat took on the look of a winter marsh. Or a hula skirt. As for the morning’s haul of ducks, Bernie said that his customers “shot a few. But they missed a whole lot.” He paused, “I wouldn’t tell them that. But they did.”

We don’t see sailboats with this disguise.

One contibuting factor for the low duck count — there were five ducks shot — may have been the warm-for-winter weather and clear skies. “It’s a pretty day, “ Bernie said, “and that’s not a good day for duck hunting.” As he explained, it all centers on the ducks’ metabolism. When it’s warm, Bernie said, ducks loll about and don’t need to eat a lot. That tends to keep them on the ground and out of the skies — and out of the hunters’ sights.

“But when its cold and nasty, their metabolism increases and they have to eat”. They fly more, in search of food, and at the same time, expose themselves. Said Bernie, “That’s basically how it works.”

You’ve heard the expression – “a Dead Duck”. This is one….

A hunting guide for 35 years, Bernie said that the Neuse River where they’d hunting on this day before New Years Eve was actually a better place to find sea ducks than places that were closer to the sea, such as the Core Sound where he had taken his four customers the day before.

A few moments later, the squish of boots could be heard coming down Hodges Street as Bernie’s daughter, the four hunters (and the black dog) returned with lunch in hand. In short order, they were back out to the waters. A slight bit of cloudiness moved in. Perhaps it would give them better luck.

Posted Thursday December 30, 2004 by Melinda Penkava

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