The report from John Kilcullen, Enniscrone, was of a medium sized whale that is most likely to be one of the rarely seen beaked whales. This unusual event was also mentioned on northwest radio and was passed on to the coast guard who issued a navigation alert.
At 12:30 on 3rd Nov. the whale was observed from Enniscrone Pier travelling slowly along the shore from the beach to the pier, and actually swam into it, damaging its beak. It then stopped for 4-5 minutes in only a few meters of water before swimming back out into the bay.
John has recorded some of this bizarre event on video which may help us confirm its species. But his initial web search suggests it was not a northern bottlenose whale, as it appeared not to have a pronounced bulbous forehead.
So you might keep your eyes and ears to the ground and if you see or hear of anything unusual blubber wise stranding on a local beach, you should contact your local NPWS conservation ranger. Any digital images taken can be emailed to IWDG at enquiries@iwdg.ie