We found another Argiope down the street. She’d made a spectacular catch.
Her web is in a great location, because she had a second dragonfly trussed up and awaiting consumption.
These are top predators in their community, except for the birds. But the birds don’t want to stick their beaks in a sticky web.
Birds don’t go after orb spiders – with one exception we have noted: in the fall when the orb spiders are all big and fat, and the berries on our mountain ash (sorbus) tree are ripe, the cedar waxwings visit. It’s the only time they come to our yard. For two days they strip the berries off the tree, and pluck those fat spiders out of the middle of their webs. Then they leave until next year.
However, there is a genus of giant damselflies that are specialized hunters of orb-weavers.