North of the Convention Centre the hotels thin out, and two more Cameron County beach parks provide access: Andy Bowie Park just outside the city limits, and Edwin K. Atwood Park farther north, where the pavement ends. TPWD's LTC 034 entry covers the beach and undeveloped island beyond that point: it is the place on the island for rare gulls and terns and for pelagic strays after storms, peregrine falcons are described as common in winter and migration, and snowy and piping plovers use the beach and the wind-tidal flats on the bay side. Four-wheel-drive vehicles can continue up the beach toward the Mansfield Cut at low tide; the rules for driving on the beach, and the posted nesting areas that must be avoided in spring and summer, are discussed under "Protecting beach-nesting birds" below. The bayside flats north of town are the part of South Padre Island most directly connected to the piping plover story, and are also where the Nature Conservancy's former South Padre Island Preserve was donated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007 as part of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network's site description.
Bird gently
Stay on public paths, give resting and nesting birds room, keep voices low around blinds, and avoid crowding a bird for a photograph. Sightings are never guaranteed.