Just who are these people strolling through Lindsay's neighborhood?

A couple of mornings a week I see a couple out walking in the morning. She's fairly non-descript - middling height, middling weight, brown hair cut medium short, and she wears clothing appropriate to be out walking in the morning. She leads a german shepard and walks in front. Her husband/father/boyfriend/partner/random aquanitance walks a little ways behind him. He's easily spotted for two reasons. The first, he tends to wear something along the lines of jeans, an oversized white henley shirt that falls to mid-thigh, an beach/sand hat in camoflauge print, and he carries a really big walking stick which he doesn't actually use for walking - he just totes it around with him. And second, he has a two foot green parrot perched on his shoulder.

I'm baffled. I understand talking the dog along for the walk and getting your morning constitutional while you're at it. But I am absolutely stumped as to why one would take a bird for a walk. The bid never squaks, never looks like it's trying to take flight, and had I not seen it looking around and moving it's head I would have sworn it was a stuffed. And what would he need the Big Ass Stick for, anyways? It's not like they go out at 5 in the morning when it's still dark out - they stroll at 7:30 along well maintained sidewalks and though I do live in a suburb there aren't exactly wild bears meandering the streets that need to be beaten back. I don't get it.