Sounds like you’re too young to remember the Suez Crisis in 1956. I was a young girl but sure do remember the headlines.
In 1952, my dad went to Korea on a West coast destroyer (USS Rooks) proposed to my mom via mail, and came back via the Suez Canal and Straits of Gibraltar.
On his way through the Suez Canal, he was on the open bridge, and a hawk landed on top of the very tip of the mast. It had another bird of some kind in its talons, and as it ripped away at it, the feathers floated down on top of the crew as they looked up, the ripped, downy feathers looking like just so much gentle snow in the desert!