Area of Search Dorset Interest Biological | Grid reference SY688813 Notification 1952 (1952) | |
 | ||
Area 71.5 hectares (0.715 km; 0.276 sq mi) | ||
Lodmoor (grid reference SY688813) is a 71.5 hectares (177 acres) Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Dorset, England, notified in 1952. The site includes a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds nature reserve. Some nationally rare bird species breed there, and it is also visited by some uncommon migratory waders.
Lodmoor is 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) east of Weymouth, near the suburb of Preston. It is composed of reed bed, salt marsh, wet grassland and open water, and is separated from Weymouth Bay by Greenhill beach and the B3155 road. The construction of a sea wall in the twentieth century has prevented regular tidal incursions, although freshwater flooding is still an occurrence, especially in winter. The site is accessible via three trails.
Birds breeding at Lodmoor include bearded tit, Cetti's warbler, marsh warbler and Savi's warbler. A wide variety of migratory waders visit, including northern lapwing, common snipe, wood sandpiper, green sandpiper, spotted redshank and whimbrel. Visitors belonging to uncommon species of wader include jack snipe, greenshank and ruff.
There are also populations of two rare insects, short-winged conehead and lesser marsh grasshopper.