Giant plover gets a name

It’s official: the giant piping plover is named Pebbles.

The Lincoln-based Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership’s naming contest came to a close Oct. 29, and after eliciting 279 different names from 182 different people, and drawing entries from as far away as Halifax, Nova Scotia, the winners were Stephanie Egger from Pleasantville, N.J., and George Oliver from Missouri Valley, Iowa.

“We liked the name, and also the piping plovers nest on sand and often line their nests with pebbles, so it kind of all fit,” said Chris Thody, outreach coordinator for the Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership.

Pebbles will be a traveling, outreach item.

“We’ve already taken it to a couple of places,” Thody said. “We have a setup where we can take a picture with a person standing next to the plover and print it out immediately.”

People see the bird and want to know more about it, she said.

“Outreach like that is priceless.”

Pebbles has already been to the Durham Museum in Omaha, she added,

The Tern and Plover Conservation Partnership is located at 153D Hardin Hall, 3310 Holdrege St., Lincoln.