Possible purposes of the crows (session 239)

[Lindharin]

I had another reason Saruman might be deploying the crows that way.
What if he's actually searching for news about the Nazgul? If he knows the ringwraiths are unclothed and moving across the land after the flood at the Ford, how could he try to find them? They would be very hard to track by hawks, which couldn't see them, or presumably even with a palantir. The Nazgul's aura of fear can be felt by animals, if I recall correctly, at least if they are close enough. Maybe he's using these massive flocks of birds flying close to the ground to sense where they are and track their progress. The main argument against that would be the timing of this scene. The Fellowship waited a while before leaving Rivendell, so potentially by this time the Nazgul should have been further away than Hollin. But perhaps Saruman doesn't know that, or has not been able to locate all of them and suspects at least some are still in the region. Just a thought...

 

[Makar]

And the Nazgul would notice someone searching the area. Since they know it is not Sauron, it would be easy for them to draw the conclusion who it is....

 

[Arnorion]

I think this is certainly possible, if not altogether likely. His number one priority has to be finding the ring and he is most likely searching for it; all his thought is bent on it, you might say. As to the hawks, I have my own theory.

If Saruman suspects they are leaving Rivendell and heading for Gondor or Lothlorien (I doubt he has considered the concept of unmaking the ring in Mount Doom) then he would have a large region to search. Hawks flying at higher altitudes could spot movement for the lower-flying crebain to narrow in on.

And even if the crows haven’t been sent to kill and despoil shiny objects (a possibility I never considered but which now seems extremely likely), a fragmentary group could leave the searching regiments and return to Orthanc to report a suspicious group found, informing the release of warg riders to intercept on the ground and maybe even guide them there.

This approach actually fits well with the find, fix, track, target, execute kill-chain used in modern military ops planning.

 

[Arnorion]

Also, regarding the question of the palantir as a search tool, I’m not convinced that would be very effective. Even wielded by a stern will it can only see one spot at a time so the question becomes how fast can you sweep the continent or region. This is another point in favor of the crows as searchers: many eyes can look across a wide area faster, scanning for wanders in the wild.