Bird watching on Paradise Island

In the morning, we would start the day off by going for an early morning jog. I saw a sign posted in the lobby of the Comfort Suites that Lakeview Drive around the corner had a great area for bird watching. We decided to check it out.
I was amazed that this little off-the-beaten-track had such a superb bird watching spot. It was a wooded area with a fresh water pond filled with all kinds of birds.
I noted these birds in my log book: olivaceous cormorants, a green heron, white crowned pigeons, ruddy turnstones, smooth billed anis (looks like a crow but with a thick beak), an osprey, gray kingbird, common moorhen (a little duck with red beak covering), American redstart, laughing gulls, Eurasian collared dove (looks like a mourning dove), red legged thrush, snowy egret and a rare Bahama Woodstar( kind of looks like a hummingbird). The pond there was loaded with fresh water fish (they looked like Jack Dempsey cichlids). When I approach the water all these fish huddled together and stared up at me.
Apparently they get fed on a regular basis. The next day I brought some bread. The fish were jumping out of the water after the bread like piranhas. As I was feeding them I saw this parade of little wrinkled black heads swimming across the pond heading straight for us. It was a stampede of fresh water painted turtles. There was at least 15 turtles staring up at me waiting for a morsel of bread as well.
It was a wonderful way to start the day.
My "friend John" suggested to check out the Ardastra zoo in Nassau. We could've had a van from the zoo pick us up but we decided to take the ferry across from Paradise Island to Nassau instead so we could go shopping at the market area afterwards. The zoo was a good mile and half walk from the ferry port after we arrived in Nassau. It was a good thing we left early because it was starting to get ungodly hot.
The zoo turned out to be an absolute gem.
It was more of an exotic bird sanctuary. It was clean and well care for. We spent the entire day feeding the brightly colored lorikeets their favorite apples, watching the budgies happily carrying on their business, watching the pink flamingos strut their stuff on parade and by accident, a pair yellow fronted amazons engaging in an amorous affair. I thoroughly enjoyed this little zoo. We spent all of our energy here so it was a bit of a hike in the heat to get back to the ferry.
We were both hot, tired and hungry. Shopping in the straw markets at this time did not hold any appeal to us now.
I just wanted to get in a pool to cool off.
The ferry on the way back to Paradise Island was loaded chock-a-block with people. I know in the US there are regulations limiting how many people you can have on a vessel. Apparently this rule does not hold true in the Bahamas.
The self appointed Bahamian "tour guide" aboard the boat entertained those who wanted to listen to his stories ranging from celebrity sightings, historical facts (or not) about the island and the viagra-like effects conch salad had on men. Needless to say, he urged the male patrons to eat at the "fish hut" for the glorious effects of the native conch.
We ate veggie subs at Quiznos.
Nobody was swimming at the Comfort Suites pool so we had the pool to ourselves.
It was a great day in Paradise....