In the landscape.
Plants & places
Wooded garden edges and structures, as shown in the photographs.
A sensible first response
Give webs a quiet corner; a sharp top-down view could strengthen these open species records.
When to look
August and September photographs; mature orb-weavers become conspicuous late in the growing season.
Identification
The August series is soft and mainly ventral; the September series clearly shows a rounded mottled abdomen, orange-red leg bases and banded, spiny legs on an orb web. Neoscona is a good fit, but these two observation dates are not assumed to represent one species or individual.
Lookalikes & limits
Neoscona crucifera and N. domiciliorum overlap in appearance. The red legs suggest the latter in September, but the dorsal pattern and species-level anatomical characters are not clear enough to settle it.
In the garden
Predators intercepting insects in wheel-shaped webs.
