Seasons End in the Hamptons

At daylight, a gentle northwest breeze pushed along a female swan and her three dark cygnets. The youngsters swam dutifully behind their mother, away from the protection of the tall bankside weeds that harbored and protected them from predators since birth. The adult swans typically gather in numbers along the north shore of Georgica Pond to feed on the undergrowth while the cygnets nestle in the tall shore greenery. It is getting close to the end of the season for these delicate birds, but they won’t migrate far, only to waters closer to the ocean that always stay a few degrees warmer during the winter months.

Along with the swans, the last several weeks of August see the migration of the summer human population. First it is the public and then the private school students who go, driven by their parents across the Shinnecock Canal to New York City and other parts west. By Labor Day, only the year-round permanent population remains, now doubled since Covid.

It has been an overpopulated and car-dense movement of people from Southampton to Montauk Point and back this summer. Social media has drawn flocks of partiers and influencers. Pop-up shops, the new frontier in the bricks and mortar retail experience, attract throngs of wealthy summer folk, many of them double parkers, tying up traffic. Parking tickets now support not only code enforcement but a large part of the municipal budget. Runners and cyclists abound, taking their chances on the busy roads. There is no longer a fast back route between East Hampton and Southampton. Village garbage trucks make their rounds after dark. Parking is unavailable in Sag Harbor except after midnight.

When the swans depart from the pond, so do the pond frontage residents who take their beetle cats out of the water for maintenance and storage in the off-season. Down the road, Blade helicopters carry their passengers to the airports or New York City. No goodbyes, just “See you next year.”