Monica Shaheed, 18, left, and Meredith Shaheed, 11, check to see the sex of a butterfly before recording information Saturday. The Lawrence sisters and their mother have come to the annual event for eight years.

This is something 7-year-olds are able to do. They go out into the Baker Wetlands with their nets and capture orange and black beauties, monarch butterflies.

I should be able to do that, right? Except that I’m horribly uncoordinated and hadn’t thought about catching bugs since third grade.

Tagging monarch butterflies was my task early Saturday morning for a program put on by Monarch Watch and Jayhawk Audubon Society. This time of year brings thousands of butterflies to the area, making a pit stop on their way south to Mexico for the winter. During the bugs’ break in Lawrence, hundreds of volunteers showed up to help tag them and further research about monarchs’ migration patterns.

Chip Taylor, Kansas University professor of insect ecology and director of Monarch Watch, said it’s the perfect family event.

“It’s a very simple procedure,” he said. “Almost anybody can catch a monarch.”

He explains the steps to catching a butterfly:

• Move slowly — they can’t see gradual movements as easily as quick ones.

• Carry your net waist-high. At the last second, move quickly and capture them.

• Hold them at the front, or leading edge, their wing or near their body, the two sturdiest places.

• Place a tag on a certain cell of their wing, the mitten-shaped one.

• Determine whether they’re a boy or a girl based on patterns on their wings.

Well, he made it seem easy enough, but could I do it? I’m not the most coordinated person ever, so I was doubtful.

I trekked south into the Baker Wetlands, situated along 31st Street between Louisiana Street and Haskell Road, until I saw a patch of Bidens, yellow daisy-like flowers. Luckily, I ran into Alisha Becker there, a newbie at monarch tagging from Blue Springs, Mo. Despite never doing this before, she’d already caught four monarchs and seemed to be a pro.

“I want to do it again,” she said. “It’s beautiful out here.”

Becker, who had left home at 5:30 a.m. to get to the tagging on time, offered to help me get my first butterfly. Thank goodness.

The key was patience — a virtue I don’t have. But I stuck it out, and after about five minutes, I had a butterfly in my net. I tagged it, recorded its gender — female — and let it fly back into the wild. That wasn’t so hard!

Once Becker left, though, all the butterflies seemed to leave too. It took standing outside in the 80-degree weather with my net for about 20 minutes before I caught another, which unfortunately, was the same exact one I’d already caught. Then came a third catch, second butterfly, and I called it a day.

I definitely wasn’t the most successful tagger of the day. One of the more than 150 volunteers brought back 28 tags, and Taylor said in the past, groups have brought back hundreds.

It’s something I’d like to try again, especially so I can bring back more than two tags. But I’ll have to remember a few things first — wear weather-appropriate clothes, bring plenty of water and be as patient as possible. That part might take some practice.