Scarce garden spiders

[Hedera]

This is the first decent sized garden spider I've seen; last year there were dozens around the garden with webs everywhere. Has the hard winter killed off the overwintering ones and the birds eaten more than ususal? There don't seem to be any in the window corners either.

[Meta menardi]

We seem to have loads of them. Can't find any Nuctenea umbratica anywhere, they used to be to be found anywhere I shone my torch a couple of years ago.