The widespread overland nocturnal migration of Common Scoters Melanitta nigra detected by ‘nocmig’ sound recording over England – mainly in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Northumberland – in calm weather on 1st and 2nd April 2020 (Brit. Birds 113: 251, 307; see also https://bit.ly/35rGTs9) was indeed spectacular. There is, however, an interesting record of such movement 141 years ago.