Isn't That a Argiope Trifasciata?

By George it is a Argiope Trifasciata! Most folks call them Banded Garden Spiders but the technical name does offer a challenge just to pronounce.

The spider pictured is a female. The males are much smaller as is usual in the spider world.

The white thing that appears like it's hanging from her middle is lunch. Some creature flew into her web and was wrapped in web and then eaten. As we watched her turn the morsel to access juicier parts of her meal we thought it pretty neat that she could maneuver so easily. Reminded me of a juggler.

She was pretty close to the ground with rocks on one side and shrubs and bushes on the others so I was challenged to get these picture which in my estimation are not that great.  Sorry. Some day I'll have a camera that works better.

These spiders emerge in the fall. They don't care for the heat of summer or the freezing of winter so they only come out for a few months in the fall. This is the first time I've ever seen one and I've been around for many fall seasons.

In their web there is a zig-zag pattern they weave. It runs through the center of the web and is called a "stabilimenta." The purpose of this unpronounceable thing is to reinforce the web so it doesn't require repair as often. Studies have shown the inclusion of the stabilimenta results in
fewer "catches" but it also results in less damage from birds as they can then see the web and avoid a collision.

One really cool thing that I thought was amazing was the spider will bounce on it's web if you lightly touch it.  We observed this and at first thought that maybe the web was stuck to the camera strap or something similar. It turns out it was this spider bouncing away.

So that's the big gee-whiz at Red Tail Ridge on this 10th anniversary of the tragedy 10 years ago in New York.

Whoohoo Y'all...