A morning at the river bank along the Yamuna Biodiversity Park and Shyam Ghat, Delhi

A chance mention in one of the travel magazines suddenly fueled our desire to visit the Yamuna Biodiversity Park- A park in Delhi which we had never heard of...
We also took it as a personal affront since here was a wooded/birding area in Delhi about which we had no idea!! How was this even possible as we considered ourselves seasoned Delhibirders of nearly two decades standing. Well that was exactly the point. This area has come up over the last ten years or so and we had returned to Delhi after 15 years.

The build up to the visit was equally interesting. Firstly there were hardly any hardcore birding blogs or trip reports. Also the googlopedia information kept mentioning visiting hours as 10 to 5 on weekdays. What kind of nature reserve/birding area works office hours?? There goes any chance of visiting, i thought and started making other weekend plans. 

 

The Missus at the Waterfront beyond Shyam Ghat

 
But once the missus has made up her mind,  no stone is left unturned. Moreover she has this unexplainable faith in systems...She persisted with phone calls and even sent an e- mail. Amazingly, there was a very polite reply and a request for us to schedule our visit on Saturday. She persisted again and replied that she was working on Saturdays and if Sunday is possible!. Then she gave me the task of actually calling up a number listed on the DDA website.  Taking pity on her hypersimplicity, i called up the number- twice, without response. Satisfied that i had done as directed and obviously it was foolish to expect a response, i set about planning the activities for the weekend.

That’s when my golf plans came undone.

 

One helpful Mr Mohan Singh actually called back on my missed call! He patiently explained that no one would be allowed in the park on Sunday and gates would be locked outside office hours. With some faint hope, i queried whether there was any access to the riverside marsh area if not the park area. That’s when he was overjoyed to share with us that they were actually planning a phase 2 of the park. As of now there was nothing organized there but we could easily access the area on our own. That’s how we ended up visiting the Jagatpur village bund road area this Sunday.

 

Yamuna Biodiversity Park area in North East Delhi

One needs to head for the Wazirabad area of north east Delhi and reach the Shyam Ghat via the Jagatpur Bund Road. The area is relatively clean considering its an Indian riverside ghat. We actually did not see any defecating humans.. 

It was a splendid winter morning with no mist and plenty of sunshine.  On reaching the Shyam ghat viewpoint we noticed several people bringing grain and spreading it around, a common soul cleansing ritual i understand. That explained the large number of bank mynas sparrows and wagtails voraciously making the best of the morning feast..

Pied wagtail

Bank myna

We also spotted what we thought were zitting cisticolas, but may well be crested larks. The tree full of fluffed up sparrows looked quite surreal.

 

Crested lark ?juveline

Crested lark

Farm track beyond shyam ghat

After breakfast, we moved along the farm tracts that had been deeply ploughed, thus liberating a feast for the insectivorous birds. The grey wagtails were making the most of this feast and sharing the spoils were the crested larks.

 We had good views of bush chats, plain prinias and a solitary ashy prinia.   The graceful prinia gave some good views in good light. 

Graceful prinia

Anti frost tech

As we moved closer to the water line we noticed a spectacular collection of pied avocets, gulls, ruddy shelducks, common coots and black winged stints. Common redshanks and blacktailed godwits seemed to be hiding the solitary ruff. A few sandpipers were also seen wading in the shallow waters. 

The red wattled lapwing was relentlessly calling and circulating above the fields. 

Red wattled lapwing

Common coot

Black tailed godwit and a Ruff

Pied avocet

Little ring plover

Black winged stilt

Grey wagtail

Common sandpiper

This morning we saw what any birder would describe as a few very “common” birds. However standing on the waterline of the Yamuna river on this crisp February morning, it became abundantly clear that the Joy of birding was never in ticking off lifelists. Rather we felt blessed that we could spend a quiet morning right here in the city, marveling at all of these feathered beings that we share this planet with. 

After all, the God Lord made them all.... 



Camera: Nikon P 900
Travel Tips:
The location is easy to find on google maps. Ask for Shyam Ghat.
Entry free
Carry your own water bottle and munchies.
Reasonably good road right upto the Shyam Ghat parking.