Hummingbird builds nest on hook hanging in noisy Victoria welding shop
Over the decades, Dave Clarke has discovered the occasional unexpected creature at his engineering and welding company – like a rubber duck stuck on the front of a truck, or a plastic poop emoji with protruding peepers – but this was a first.
“It’s right in the middle of the shop,” Dave says, pointing to a chain hanging from the ceiling with a hook at the end.
“On the crane hook.”
Sometime during the night, a bird had started building a nest in the curve of the dangling hook.
“She must have woke up in the morning and gone, ‘Oh my God!'” Dave laughs. “‘What have I done?!’”
Trucks are rumbling. Metal is clanking. Sparks are flying. This is no nurturing nursery.
But the hummingbird was undeterred, and eventually manufactured a pair of products that left the shop’s human welders in awe.
“How the heck did a little bird lay that big of an egg?” Dave laughs. “A couple days later there was another one!”
Once the babies started hatching, thanks to their mother's unrivalled work ethic, they never stopped growing.
“Talk about perseverance,” Dave says as the hummingbird flys over to the nest, lands on the hook, and starts feeding.
“It’s huge.”
While the feathered family has earned the respect of Dave’s crew, his customers were another matter.
“They are just surly kinds of guys,” Dave says. “They look like they would chew nails and spit them out.”
But then Dave brings them around back to meet the birds, and their tough exteriors crumble.
“The compassionate side of them comes out!” Dave smiles.
Their hearts seemed to swell even bigger than the young birds that have almost outgrown their nest.
“Now, they’re to the point where they’re getting ready to fly,” Dave says, as one of the birds stretches its torso out of the nest and flaps its wings furiously.
And when the inevitable happens, the previously unthinkable will occur, Dave will decommission the crane hook
“The hook will come off the chain and be displayed here forever,” Dave smiles.
Unlike the rubber duck and plastic emoji, the empty nest will be a reminder of the full hearts these little birds engineered.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Conservative MPs free to attend 'freedom' protests this summer: Bergen
With the nation's capital bracing for anticipated anti-mandate 'freedom' movement protests during Canada Day weekend, interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen says her MPs are free to attend.

Biden signs landmark gun measure, says 'lives will be saved'
U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the most sweeping gun violence bill in decades, a bipartisan compromise that seemed unimaginable until a recent series of mass shootings, including the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a Texas elementary school.
Norway terror alert raised after deadly mass shooting
A gunman opened fire in Oslo's night-life district early Saturday, killing two people and leaving more than 20 wounded in what Norwegian security service called an 'Islamist terror act' during the capital's annual Pride festival.
U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, allowing states to ban abortions
The U.S. Supreme Court has ended the nation's constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in a decision by its conservative majority to overturn Roe v. Wade. Friday's outcome is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.
Guns and abortion: Contradictory decisions, or consistent?
They are the most fiercely polarizing issues in American life: abortion and guns. And two momentous decisions by the Supreme Court in two days have done anything but resolve them, firing up debate about whether the court's Conservative justices are being faithful and consistent to history and the Constitution – or citing them to justify political preferences.
Abortion is legal in Canada -- but is it accessible? Experts weigh in
There is a renewed conversation about abortion accessibility and rights for women in Canada after U.S. Supreme Court justices overturned the Roe v. Wade case on Friday, allowing states to ban abortions.
Roe v. Wade: These U.S. states are likely to ban abortion
With the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to end constitutional protections for abortion, 26 states are likely to ban abortions; 13 of which are expected to enact bans against the medical procedure immediately.
Russia pushes to block 2nd city in eastern Ukraine
Russian forces were trying to block a city in eastern Ukraine, the region's governor said Saturday, after a relentless assault on a neighboring city forced Ukrainian troops to begin withdrawing after weeks of intense fighting.
Man arrested after four people violently attacked by his dog in Toronto: police
A suspect has been arrested after he and his 100-pound dog allegedly attacked four people overnight, Toronto police say.