Liz Condie of Operation Migration says the endangered bird, known as "733" and is one of only about 500 in the world, was seen late Wednesday afternoon "thermaling" with some sandhills cranes near Scottsburg, Indiana. In other words, he was riding the air currents, simply enjoying himself.

The Operation Migration airplane that had been keeping a visual on him and had been tracking 733's transmitter signal, has had to leave the area to refuel, so ground crews are trying to keep a visual.

Indiana DNR has been assisting since a Scottsburg man called and provided a photograph of a crane on his property.

As Condie described it to me, the man "said it has been present for a few days. There are Sandhills cranes in the area, but apparently the bird was by itself hanging around a pond with domestic ducks, geese, and swans in an adjacent pasture."

The crews will move in with costumes to lure 733 into a crate, then take him to the other 16 whooping cranes currently in Washington County, Kentucky.

Condie says birds drop out of migration legs frequently, but this would have been the first whooping crane the group had lost on a migration trip.

She thanks WHAS11 and the Courier Journal for alerting the public.

The needle in a haystack is glistening.