On the first Sunday in March, I was cycling along the Rawlings Trail in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, past numerous strollers and cyclists enjoying the balmy early-spring weather.

Near Second Beach I was keeping an eye out for coyotes. What I saw beside the trail instead was a bright splash of auburn glory.

Only two legs were visible, bright yellow, so clearly not a canine. Two people were standing nearby. I stopped my bike, and together we contemplated the rather surreal presence of a large, apparently healthy, thoroughly placid rooster.

The bird’s guardians introduced themselves as Karl and Olya Schmidt. They were not its owners, they assured me — they had simply come upon the bird as he pecked his contented way around the path.