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You notice anything unusual about the photo above?

There are seven species of this bird from the new-world family Nyctibiidae, related to nightjars, and they each are quite good at pretending to be tree stumps.

Below is a closer look at the same bird, a juvenile Common Potoo.

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On my latest flight to the East Coast, I noticed that some people in the seat ahead of me were ordering rum and cokes for $6 each. After the hassle of flying these days, I can't really blame them. But their airplane bar tab was way too steep, so I told them that next time, they should just carry their own alcohol on the plane. Those airplane liquor bottles cost about one dollar at your local liquor store, and they are under 2 ounces of liquid each.

The best thing you can drink on an airplane is water, but sometimes, on long flights, a nice drink is worth it. Here's what I do when I want to fix a drink on the airplane.

In the United States, it is not illegal to transport 2 ounces or under of alcohol bottles in your toiletries bag. It is also not illegal for you to drink it on the airplane. However, technically, your drink must be served to you by your flight attendent.

Okay, easy enough. Ask your flight attendent for a soda. Technically, you can ask her to serve the alcohol to you, but I've never bothered with that technicality. Then, mix to your heart's content. I keep a small Dark & Stormy cocktail kit in my toiletry bag. Usually, an airplane size rum, a small container of bitters, and a cocktail umbrella is all you need. Ask the flight attendent if they have ginger beer. If not, ginger ale is a fine substitute.

Why the cocktail umbrella? It's a great conversation piece to remind those around you that if you want to travel more, you need to beat the airlines at their game of overchargeing, and commit to the habits of affordable travel. Cheers!

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A young couple with two children sitting next to us on a domestic flight ordered food for their entire family. Their total ticket? $68 US, enough for a couple to share a top-notch meal at a fine restaurant. With all the baggage and travel fees that airlines are charging you these days, I thought maybe I should share the way I eat on board airplanes these days.

Cockroaches! I'm Not Safe in First Class?

Most of the benefits of first class are geared towards satisfying the simple tastes of business travelers (read: lobotomized monkeys), so, while first class meals are definitely better than coach, it's still airplane food, so what really is the difference? If you have experience with good food, you won't like what you're being served on an airplane, whether you're being overcharged in coach or being served up in first-class.

In 2010, the USA Today uncovered reports from the FDA using the Freedom of Information Act. What they found? Airline food is unsafe, and the companies that make your airline food had kitchens littered with cockroaches, flies and rodent feces. The kitchen workers? Poor personal hygiene. The FDA findings were so shocking, that airline food was considered so unsanitary as to simply not be safe, at any elevation.

What's more...first class food is in no way immune to cockroaches licking your Southwest Chicken. It's the same factory, with the same guy who doesn't wash his hands. So the next time some lobotomized monkey tells you why his company is paying him a thousand dollars more to fly first class so he can eat like a king, you know that he, and his company, are morons.

So What's the Secret?

There's no secret. Just a good habit that we've lost since we've grown accustomed to free food on an airline. Whether riding first class or coach, avoid eating anything the airlines serve you, unless its bottled, and pack yourself a good meal.

If you have a decent lunch box, this can be done quickly, even while traveling globally. I prefer packing a bento box with cheeses, fruits and olives, and carrying a fresh french bread aboard. Olives and fresh almonds are great too.

A well-packed bento box packs nutrition in a small space. Here are my two lunchbots and a wood cutting board which acts as a plate. This takes up just a tiny amount of space in a carry-on. In fact, all three items rest on an iPad to show you the size:

We prefer metal bento boxes like these by LunchBots, because plastic and food don't always go well together, and because I need to keep my carry-on light and small. But there are endless varieties of metal, wood and plastic bento boxes, as well as larger North American-style lunch boxes with plenty of room. Try an Asian grocery store for variety.

I'll update this column with more meal configurations for the sky.

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I've met a lot of folks who keep collections of things they pick up while traveling. It may be airport souvenirs, mementos or sometimes a very particular thing, like face masks or statuettes or tea cups. My experience is that the habit forces travelers to spend time searching for something they then have to pack in their luggage - the collection becomes a crutch.

I gave up collecting anything in particular a long time ago, and instead, Instead, I keep just two boxes of items I collect while traveling. All of these items are free, can be found anywhere in the world, and are very educational, especially once you start to explore the details of their existence.

From time to time, I'll pull one of the two boxes out and look through them with my son, whose questions sometimes force me to learn more about what exactly it is.

One box is labeled Native Artifacts, and the other Natural History. For me, this is a great setup, because it allows me to collect whatever I want and still have it fall into a general category of collection. It doesn't force me to collect anything in particular while traveling, but I can still add any of these items in my pocket just about anywhere I travel.

Native artifacts can include anything from arrowheads and native tools to items such as sea glass.

Natural history includes shells, seeds, seedpods, fossils, agates, thundereggs, dried crustaceans, pressed flowers and so forth. It should be said that many types of native artifacts are illegal to collect because they disturb potential archaeological sites. Many natural history items, such as living invertebrates or corals, should never be collected, and picking anything alive, including flowers, should be done carefully. I usually only pick live flowers on roadsides.

Collecting a few shells is, on its own, not all that rewarding. But building a habit of collecting related items over time actually teaches me a lot about those items. Here is a sampling from my small Natural History collection:

All fuzzy pink sombreros and eiffel tower statuettes eventually find their way to the garbage can. But a collection of unique artifacts and specimens is free, beautiful, unique and will entertain and educate for a lifetime. What do you collect while on the road? Let me know your thoughts on Facebook.

Nib pens, which consist of a wooden shaft, a metal nib, and a fountain of ink, make great tools for travel journals. A few reasons why:

1. Rapidographs and other technical pens will often explode in an airplane from cabin pressure. Nib pens are such simple pens, but with similar precision as rapidographs, so they make great replacements.

2. And while other pens act funny in extreme weather, nib pens work always work, provided you always keep your nib clean.

3. Nibs offer more control over flow of ink than modern pens, so they lend some of the qualities of painting to your travel journal kit.

About 18 months ago, when my son was about to turn two, I was in the Isthmus and met up with a pair of British twitchers - fanatical U.K. birdwatchers - who told me that by the time my son is two, he should be expected to know the names of at least 20 bird species.

My son is now three and a half, and has spent considerable time on the road with me, and he still doesn't know 20 bird species. Somehow, I think he'll be okay. But, despite my ignoring the advice of the twitchers, I have always thought about my son's backpack, and what he should have in it while we are traveling or walking outdoors.

Toddlers won't pick up a magnifying glass, a compass, binoculars or any travel gadgetry willingly. But on the other hand, when you are in the open outdoors or traveling, and they have your full attention, teaching them to pull out their toddler travel tools really helps them engage in their surroundings, and it has become, for me and my son, a simple and fun way to learn about the world. Here are the toddler pack details:

Fjallraven Kanken Backpack for Toddlers with:

A photo from my notes on the Mountain Cheese of Portugal is featured in a Carmen Rizzo remix of an Eddie Cohn song from Eddie's sophomore album, "Stay with Me". Carmen Rizzo is a music producer who works with artists like Alanis Morrissette and Oakenfold,and a three-time grammy nominee.

Carmen Rizzo (left) and Eddie Cohn. Photo by Rony Peters

Eddie Cohn is a long-time friend of mine. I am honored to see this photograph, shot at midnight in the mountains between Spain and Portugal, on this iTunes single.

In the photo above, captured a few days ago, three brown pelicans line up in formation, preparing to dive bomb a school of fish.

Today, I tallied my birds from the past week, and realized I have now seen exactly 800 birds. The bird that got me there was the Grey Gull. You can see my bird list on this site. A few years ago, I wondered if I would ever identify 200 birds. I guess the question many of us who bird while traveling have to ask is, what next?

Books are one of the heaviest items independent travelers carry, and I've always encouraged my friends to leave their travel guides at home, and instead opt to build their guide by cutting and pasting relevant information into a home-made travel guide, like a light-weight moleskine.

Sometimes, carrying a heavy identification field guide is required. When cutting weight in my backpack for an upcoming trip to Latin America, I cut out 1,200 pages of text in a large field guide and opted just for the color plates. The extensive notes on distribution that I removed was replaced by colored dots next to the color plates. One dot of color indicates the region, a second dot of the same color indicates that the animal is present this time of year.

I used a tomato knife to cut off the rest of the book, and then duct-taped a manila folder as a cover.

I expect it to be several years before these sorts of low-demand Latin American field guides will be available as mobile apps.

Jane and I reported to each other that we had been seeing a strange bird flying above the Abacos in the Bahamas. A large white hawk with brilliantly contrasting lines of black, and a long tail like a swallow or frigatebird. Locals had been seeing the unusual bird as well, and one described it as being like a "starship in the sky."

I kept my camera at hand in case I saw it again.

It turns out that El Nino weather patterns and unusual northwesterly winds had blown these birds, more known in Central and South America, towards the Bahamas. I shot this photo of a swallow-tailed kite while trying to identify the starship in the sky.

Note the blue wings on this butterfly from Ithomiinae (a subfamily of Nymphalidae) - you can see the vegetation behind them. The wings of these delicate jungle butterflies give them an ethereal elusive quality. The bright blue sheen only comes out with the camera's flash, or in just the right light.

There are 370 clearwings in the world, ranging throughout Latin America. Their invisibility, along with their preference for certain types of plants, gives them a bizarre smell and taste that every type of animal, from bird to mammal to insect, despises.

These butterflies can afford to be delicate because they have cornered the market on assuring their safety.

Last fall, I showed you a simple way to keep your field bag light with a simple colored pencil holder. Here is another solution that works well. This is a small, compact and waterproof watercolor pallette, which I use as part of my moleskine travel journal setup.. Although you can carry a small amount of watercolors in any size container - an altoids tin, for example, a waterproof pallette can't be beat because you can open and close it anywhere, and not worry about spilled paint.

Also, I collect different sizes of drinking straws, which are great in protecting your brushes in travel. I keep the brushes right in the pallette to shave weight and space, and I seek out shorter brushes, which are easier to stow while traveling.

If you read my post on the white mystery spider, you should know that I received a response from the Department of Entomology, University of California Riverside. They found an image of a spider in Brazil which looks identical.

Species name? Epicadus heterogaster, or White crab Spider.

Although this is a different species, look at this David Attenborough video on the power of white crab spiders.

Above is a wold spider, probably about 8 inches in diameter, which we photographed hanging over a river on a large leaf, preparing to pounce on an appropriate prey. Wolf spiders are so confusing, I won't attempt to ID this guy any time soon.

Just received another email from the Dept of Entemology:

The taxonomy of the genus is such that there are only six species, and it looks like only one of them is recorded outside of Brazil, actually - Epicadus granulatus. However, using geographic distribution to make a species ID is NOT wise. There is no reason that E. heterogaster could NOT be found in Panama, nor any of the 4 remaining species (or, for that matter, it could also be undescribed).

Labelling the photo "Epicadus sp." would be as far as you could go, then.

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I always compress everything for my trip into a single moleskine journal - itineraries, contacts, airplane tickets and so forth. I also add notes about the places I am going. The process, before and during travel, helps me learn about different subjects. I have already filled a couple journals about the country of Panama. When I visited to El Valle, I had a very specific purpose - to focus on the micro-world, and so this journal reflects that. Visit Moleskine Journal

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I love toucans, but there is something unreal about the Emerald Toucanet. Toucans are always brilliantly colored, but the emerald toucanet is a brilliant green - such an ethereal color for such a large bird.

The emerald toucanet above, which I photographed in Panama while with a group of birders, is also called a Blue-throated Toucanet. Look at its throat. If you would see the same species in Mexico, for example, you wouldn't see the blue throat.

Blue-throated toucanets, then, are a subspecies of Emerald Toucanets. But, ornithologists currently recognize seven different, and distinct, subspecies of the Emerald Toucanet, and they all have great names in their own right - our Blue-throated, the Wagler's, the Emerald subspecies, the Violet-throated, the Santa Marta, the Andean and the Peruvian.

While I love toucans, this guy in particular is a good lesson in the future of ornithology. Right now, science recognizes about 10,000 species of birds. But as we learn more about biology, DNA and genetics, we get a better glimpse into whether certain animals should be categorized as sub-species, or their own species.

Many believe that within the next quarter-century, the amount of bird species known to science will jump from ten thousand to perhaps as high as 25,000. The reason has nothing to do with more discoveries - although new bird discoveries still do happen. It's about more refined biology being used to reclassify birds.

For the birder's who are walking with me, seeing this Blue-throated Toucanet could end up having a profound impact on their hobby in the future. Let's say they've seen the Emerald Toucanet in Peru, Venezuala, Costa Rica, Mexico and now Panama. If biologists decided to split the bird into seven species, these birder's total species tally will increase.

In ornithology, there is a reverse side to 'splitting.' It's called 'lumping.' In taxonomy, there are lumpers and splitters; and both sides have valid arguments about whether certain species need to be split, or certain species need to be reclassified as a single species. In the world of ornithology, both are happening constantly, and following the conversation is a nice way of peering into the future of taxonomy.

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We know this much. The creature in the photo below is from the family Thomisidae, which means the animal below is a type of crab spider. Now, the mystery continues because we don't yet know its species name, or even its genus name.

When I first saw this spider, I instantly remembered a documentary by David Attenborough in which he highlighted very specialized spiders that resembled orchids. I called this spider a 'white orchid spider.'

Here is what I have uncovered by talking to spider enthusiasts over the past couple days.

1. Crab spiders don't build webs. Rather, they have complex means of ambushing their prey.

2. Many species in Thomisidae have evolved to look identical to the parts of a specific type of flower. These crab spiders are often referred to as flower spiders or, more specifically, orchid-mimic spiders.

3. I have found an online photo of this animal, in which the author called the spider an orchid-mimic spider.'

4. The photo above was from the Amazon, but I photographed my orchid-mimic at high elevation in Panama. Such diverse geography and habitat would suggest this creature is widespread, but why then did the other reference claim he believes he is the first person to ever photograph this spider?

More tomorrow.

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I believe in an absolute minimum in photography equipment - stay light and leave the dozens of lenses to the gear junkies. I have the luxury of saying this because for many years, I have traveled with a very heavy camera, whose sheer weight requires me to shave off the extras.

In the past 2 years, I've added a digital Canon to my backpack for the sole purpose of shooting telephotos. More recently, I realized Notes from the Road could also benefit from macros. For each type of photography I add, the backpack gets heavier and I learn ways to shave off even more weight.

I have been practicing macros in Panama and have over a thousand images of all manner of tropical critters. I want to share this one with you because the mystery is spectacular. Before I start to reveal what it is, and just how amazing this thing is, I want to challenge my readers to attempt an identification. Please note that I have not confirmed the species, but I know enough to know the biology of this organism. Join the discussion at my Facebook page if you know anything about this, or just want to take a wild stab. Tomorrow, I'll reveal more detail.

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I just photographed new butterflies in Panama. Want to help me identify them? The new ones start here.

Just finished this map of Honduras for an upcoming story on Atlantida. Visit the full map.

I am adding links to all maps here in Roam. They will eventually all be housed here. I am also updating the old maps and will be posting them here. Link