Lodmoor is a 71.5 hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, notified in 1952. The site includes a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903.The title changed to 'Bird Notes' in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year . Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years...

 nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

. Some nationally rare bird species breed there, and it is also visited by some uncommon migratory

Bird migration

Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...

 wader

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

s.

Lodmoor is 1 mile (1.6km) east of Weymouth, near the suburb of Preston

Preston, Dorset

Preston is a coastal village and suburb of Weymouth in south Dorset, England. It is approximately north-east of Weymouth town centre and west of the village of Osmington....

. It is composed of reed bed

Reed bed

Reed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...

, salt marsh

Salt marsh

A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...

, wet grassland and open water, and is separated from Weymouth Bay

Weymouth Bay

Weymouth Bay is a sheltered bay on the south coast of England, in Dorset. It is protected from erosion by Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland, and includes several beaches, notably Weymouth Beach, a gently curving arc of golden sand which stretches from the resort of Weymouth, along to the...

 by Greenhill

Greenhill, Dorset

Greenhill is a suburb to the northeast of Weymouth in Dorset, England, with a sand and shingle beach.The A353 road, locally known as Greenhill, runs parallel and close to the beach. To the northeast it becomes Preston Road, leading to the village of Preston. Also to the northeast along the coast...

 beach and the A353 road.

Birds breeding at Lodmoor include Bearded Tit, Cetti's Warbler

Cetti's Warbler

Cetti's Warbler , Cettia cetti, is an Old World warbler which breeds in Europe, northwest Africa and east southern temperate Asia as far as Afghanistan and NW Pakistan. It is the only bush warbler to occur outside Asia...

, Marsh Warbler

Marsh Warbler

The Marsh Warbler, Acrocephalus palustris, is an Old World warbler currently classified in the family Acrocephalidae. It breeds in temperate Europe and western Asia and winters mainly in south east Africa...

 and Savi's Warbler

Savi's Warbler

The Savi's Warbler, Locustella luscinioides, is an Old World warbler in the grass warbler genus Locustella. It breeds in southern Europe into temperate western Asia. It is migratory, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa....

. A wide variety of migratory waders visit, including Northern Lapwing

Northern Lapwing

The Northern Lapwing , also known as the Peewit, Green Plover or just Lapwing, is a bird in the plover family. It is common through temperate Eurasia....

, Common Snipe

Common Snipe

The Common Snipe is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitat is marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout northern Europe and northern Asia...

, Wood Sandpiper

Wood Sandpiper

The Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola, is a small wader. This Eurasian species is the smallest of the shanks, which are mid-sized long-legged waders of the family Scolopacidae.- Description and systematics :...

, Green Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper

The Green Sandpiper is a small wader of the Old World. It represents an ancient lineage of the genus Tringa; its only close living relative is the Solitary Sandpiper . They both have brown wings with little light dots and a delicate but contrasting neck and chest pattern...

, Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

The Spotted Redshank, Tringa erythropus, is a wader in the large bird family Scolopacidae. It breeds across northern Scandinavia and northern Asia and migrates south to the Mediterranean, the southern British Isles, France, tropical Africa, and tropical Asia for the winter...

 and Whimbrel

Whimbrel

The Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus, is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae. It is one of the mostwidespread of the curlews, breeding across much of subarctic North America, Europe and Asia as far south as Scotland....

. Visitors belonging to uncommon species of wader include Jack Snipe

Jack Snipe

The Jack Snipe, Lymnocryptes minimus is a small stocky wader. It is the smallest snipe, and the only member of the genus Lymnocryptes...

, Greenshank

Greenshank

The Common Greenshank is a wader in the large family Scolopacidae, the typical waders. Its closest relative is the Greater Yellowlegs, together with which and the Spotted Redshank it forms a close-knit group...

 and Ruff

Ruff

The Ruff is a medium-sized wading bird that breeds in marshes and wet meadows across northern Eurasia. This highly gregarious sandpiper is migratory and sometimes forms huge flocks in its winter grounds, which include southern and western Europe, Africa, southern Asia and Australia...

.

There are also populations of two rare insects, Short-winged conehead and Lesser marsh grasshopper

Chorthippus albomarginatus

Chorthippus albomarginatus, the lesser marsh grasshopper, is a common grasshopper of European grassland both damp-marshy and dry, including salt-marsh and coastal habitats.- Distribution :...

.

External links

• English Nature website (SSSI information)