What I learned was that coyotes are much smarter than I am when it comes to these kinds of decisions. When I was about halfway to the island and knee-deep in the lake and mud, the adult pelicans launched an attack. The giant birds flew at me with their huge mouths wide open and their feet clawing at me. It wouldn't matter if the birds were on an island or not. If another animal tried to get close, the adults would attack in force.
Colonial nesting grounds are safe places to raise babies.
The colonial nesting grounds that my staff and students and I discovered over the past few years have anywhere from 10 to several thousand nests. Two nesting grounds are even on islands in a shallow lake. The dinosaurs that nested on the islands are hypsilophodontids called Orodromeus . And a group of duckbills called Maiasaura nested along streams in groups of at least 100. And nesting grounds of the crested, duck-billed dinosaur Hypacrosaurus appear to have had as many as several hundred to 1,000 nests at one time.