Originally posted by Servant of Seraph:

They DO NOT spawn near the starting island. Theres a video on YT that goes into detail about this and shows the perimeter at which they start spawning. Research it 😎😇

I had one spawn in a literal lake so close to spawn it was visible from the shoreline inside the meadows ring that exists around spawn. There was like a patch of ocean in the middle and it spawned in it.