The photo below shows two swans building a nest on the pond in Sefton Park from a few weeks ago.

I took some images of the daffs out in the Field of Hope at the time too, and while this photo is utterly unremarkable there’s a funny story behind it.

Thing is, the outcrop you can see in the photo is actually the base of a fountains shooting a jet of water a good 20 feet up in the air.

Walking around the park at the weekend I noticed that the fountain was now working, and the swans unsurprisingly had moved on.

What I didn’t expect was to see a drenched coot sat on a nest at the base of the fountain, with a dutiful male bringing bits of grass to shore up the nest, which is presumably in need of running repairs.

Is this an ultra-cunning plan to deter predators? Or are the bird-brained waterfowl just a pair of stupid coots? Tune in next week to find out what happens next…