In this case it does sound like the rooster was just checkin' out the nesting accomodations. He might be curious, or might be trying to arrange it perfectly, like hens do before they begin to lay. Reminds me of courtly behavior in presenting a delicious bug to the hens, giving them the shadiest spot, etc.
But it is kind of interesting that lots of animals actually exhibit behavior that is more typical of the other gender-- there really are not hard and fast rules, despite what we are given to believe. For example, if there is no rooster among a group of chickens, a hen will usually take on the leadership role. My dominant hen is extremely protective of the other two birds, even spreading her wings over them to protect them when they are frightened. (It's pretty touching!)
Some male birds all but change gender in the presence of a more dominant male, even growing the feathering of the other gender. It's actually a really interesting phenomenon in the animal world.
The other thing to realize is that it is not unusual for animals of all sorts to have physical aspects of both genders. Even among humans, hormonal changes during pregnancy result fairly often in people who have the external sexual organs of one gender but the brain structure of the other gender.
