Sonja

Coots usually do not feed on the nest. The give the dried and recovered hatchlings to the partner to start feeding until the last egg is emptied out, only then join the nest fleeing family on the water, but unlike dabbling ducks, they do not limit themselves to guarding and leading but feed an omnivorous diet from beak to beak.

I dont know what exactly happened here. I guess it's baby was either the last reluctant hatchling that had to be enticed to follow into the water to some place where the other parental unit guarded the sibblings or it had shoved this chick that can't be much older than a few days up on some deserted nest platform during a predator alarm and needed to enduce it to climb down again and follow. It waddled up that nest, stand with the young half a minute, then went past it and down into the water on the other end, doing a lot of clucking and chatting, swam a circle to aproach again from the same side with a morsel and loitered before the nest clucking with greens at the bill tip, then repeated the whole process a second time. There where no egg shells to see, also not for tall men standing on tiptoe. Anyway the poor coot was frantic, ignoring a whole bunch of watching people that acumulated and doing it's performance all over, whilst the chick only adjusted the angle at which it stood to see the adult....