Nature spotting

Nature thrives in this special place

Did you know that the estate where the American Museum & Gardens calls home is also home to a stunning array of wildlife?

Birds

From buzzards, red kites, tawny owls, greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers, and green woodpeckers, to marsh tits, blackcaps, chiffchaffs, swallows, stock doves, greenfinches, nuthatches, goldcrests, treecreepers, sparrows, blackbirds and robins – birds thrive across the site.

Butterflies & moths

Within acres of formal gardens and wildflower meadows, butterflies are abundant, with sightings of marbled white, ringlet, meadow brown, small skipper and a silver washed fritillary, as well as other beautiful pollinators such as the hummingbird hawkmoth. We know that butterflies of the night – moths – are here in their hundreds, with 125 species recorded by Bath Nats in 2022. Species include the colourful elephant hawk moth, dark spectacle, scarce silver lines, bloomer’s rivulet, and Jersey tiger.

Ladybirds to newts

Look out for ladybirds throughout the gardens, beautiful wasp spiders (harmless) in the daylilies, newts in the grotto pool and dragonflies in the Mount Vernon pond.

Bees

Thousands of long-flowering plants, trees and shrubs give our resident honeybees (and lots of other bee species) nectar and pollen across the seasons. You can see the honeybee hives in the parkland.

Bats, deer and badgers

Bats are a protected species on the estate, where there is priority hibernation, mating and roosting habitat for lesser horseshoe, greater horseshoe and common pipistrelle bats. Muntjac deer and roe deer roam the woodland, where badgers have also settled.

Biodiversity

In recent times, much work had been done to increase the biodiversity and range of habitats on the estate. An active woodland management plan, a mid-level stewardship agreement of the parkland and the use of organic principles in the gardens all encourage wildlife communities and biodiversity to flourish. For example, conservation grazing by sheep and cattle allows different wildflowers to flower and set seed each year. This provides pollen and nectar for invertebrates, which in turn increases invertebrate food available for birds.