Vultures are some of my favorite animals (right up there with owls). I find them to be rather clever. One rehab place I worked at had child-proof locks on the cabinets because a resident (non-releasable) turkey vulture liked to break into them and “rearrange” the items.

I never worked with bats but I was always on alert when cleaning bird areas with the birds roosting above me. The parrot family especially, some of them seemed to be aiming for me lol.

Good on ya for recognizing a passion and taking steps to involve it in your life. Any rehab place would be lucky to have you.

If you have a wildlife rehab place near you, you could volunteer there. You won’t get to be around the animals much until you’ve been there a while but even just observing intakes and exams you could gain more scientific knowledge. Owls suffer car collisions somewhat frequently.

As a side note, yet another reason not to throw your garbage out of your car, even things like apple cores and banana peels - it attracts mice and other rodents, which then draws the owls to hunt along the side of the road.