Gang of Delinquent Magpies

[PsychedlicSally]

Our garden is getting vandalised regularly, we suspect a gang of delinquent magpies.

Yesterday, half the flowers were pulled off my echinacea and today all the rest of the flowers except one were also pulled off and strewn on the lawn. Most of my dahlias have been beheaded over the last couple of weeks, and main stems with lots of buds snapped off.
My poor banana plant has been repeatedly attacked, as soon as its starting to recover, it gets attacked again. The leaves get bent down and snapped and the emerging rolled up leaf broken in half, photo attached. I end up having to chop the new leaf and the bent ones, so the few leaves it has left are half leaves. Some of my canna lilies have also been attacked similarly. Plant labels are pulled out and thrown round the garden most days.

We have not seen the magpies doing any of the above but we have seen them...
Pull a pair of my DDs knickers off the washing line and have a tug of war with them.
Rip the cover of a lounger cushion and pull the stuffing out.
Exhume a dead blackbird and fight over it.
Nick socks out of the laundry basket when I went to answer the phone during hanging out.

Can anyone suggest a way of discouraging or distracting them without affecting other wildlife? I have wondered about setting up a magpie playground with things they might like but don't have a clue what to include.

It is possible that the squirrels could be responsible for some things but we haven't had this level of destruction before and they seem to be busy pulling nut shells off next door's beech tree and lobbing them at us!

What did you do to piss them off to that extent?!!

Our magpies just potter round our garden mooching at things in the grass. Occassionally eating all the fat balls hung up is as raucous as they get. Where do you live so I never visit your menacing magpie town?

We did once have crows that pulled so much moss off the roof a tile fell down. Think they did us a favour alerting us to the shonky roof tiles though.

I vote for if being the squirrels. Ours are awful. They dig up everyrhing

Could deer access your garden? The banana plant damage is very unmagpie
its weirdly destructive for birds but you’ve seen some destructive behaviour

Do you have a water source? Wondering if they're looking for water in this dry season, otherwise a bit of a strange thing for magpies to do.. perhaps a few big dishes in the flower bed might help?

The squirrels can be really naughty but nothing seems to have changed with them. If anything, we have fewer than normal this year. I accept that they could be responsible for some of the vandalism but definitely not it all

We normally have a few magpies which are okay but this is a gang of destructive ones who seem to spend the day visiting gardens to wreak havoc. They're just like those gangs of youths who hang round outside shops.

Its definitely not deer, they couldn't get in anywhere. Our nearest ones would be about a mile away and they would trigger the cameras.

I have wondered if they are looking for water because the doves certainly are. We do have 2 bird baths regularly filled, a very small wildlife pond and outdoor water bowls for Ddog but they haven't been seen anywhere near them. The destruction is happening further down the garden.
It did occur to me that the banana and cannas are quite juicy plants. I'll try putting a large bowl of water further down the garden.
We had a similar gang about 5 years ago, they totally shredded the cover on our brand new collapsible frame pool and kept stealing a floating solar fountain so they do like water.

If it is indeed magpies it will actually be a gangs of youths. Teenage magpies in late summer/autumn can be really destructive. I've seen them gee'ing each other up to pull squirrels' tails. I'd net/protect what you can of the plants and set up a playground. Couple of empty cans, spent flowers, bits of fabric, old small kids toys perhaps? I'm sure there'll be some magpie mischief videos online for inspiration.