Magpies vandalising plants in pots?

I've got a verigated Laural in an ex flower bucket. It's doing fine-very healthy.
A couple of weeks ago I saw some leaves from the laural plant scattered around nearby, and one or two leaves on the plant had tears in them. It seemed strange at the time.
In the last few days I have seen a magpie(s) amongst my young trees in pots.
I used to feed the birds up to last year. The magpies would invariably get to the food before the songbirds had a chance. Now they go hungry.
Today I went out for 2 hours. When I came home, this young plum seedling (pic below) had been half pulled from it's pot, nearly severing the top growth from the roots. I'm convinced it is the magpies scavenging for food.
Has anyone else experienced this problem from magpies?


A couple of weeks ago I saw some leaves from the laural plant scattered around nearby, and one or two leaves on the plant had tears in them. It seemed strange at the time.
In the last few days I have seen a magpie(s) amongst my young trees in pots.
I used to feed the birds up to last year. The magpies would invariably get to the food before the songbirds had a chance. Now they go hungry.
Today I went out for 2 hours. When I came home, this young plum seedling (pic below) had been half pulled from it's pot, nearly severing the top growth from the roots. I'm convinced it is the magpies scavenging for food.
Has anyone else experienced this problem from magpies?


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And there were two plug sized Calendula seedlings totally missing from their pots this morning and two leaves missing from a nasturtium seedling which had three leaves when we went to bed. The pots were all on the terrace table next to the rosemary a starling was stripping leaves from earlier in the week ... 🧐
Recently, I've been watching them stash stuff on the neighbour's hedge - I can see it from my kitchen window. Yesterday, when I was doing dishes, he/she was back retrieving it
I don't see it as a problem though - it''s just the way they are.
Thankfully i have not had too much destroyed. A couple of small plants had been shredded /trampled on and the leaves of my dying off daffodils have also been shredded.
I don't think there is any malice in their destructiveness; they can't understand how much our plants mean to us, or that there is any difference between wild and cultivated plants. Although anyone who has read about Gerald Durrell's magenpies may disagree.